This Is Framingham

Bertucci’s on route 9 has recently been renovated, we decided to use our gift card and check out the changes inside.
Walking in, the first thing I noticed was the bar area, as with the rest of the restaurant,  it has new colors on the walls and new light fixtures. I liked the earthtone colors they used.

The rest of the dining room seems a little more metropolitan/sophisticated than before, there are no items like baskets, old photos or bottles olive oil  on the wall anymore.  Instead there are more earthy colors and an accent wall in the back that has the same pattern as the awnings out front.

It is a bit darker in there than before but it’s not bad, it’s nice and the only drawback was that the pcitures cameout a little dark (I didnt want to use the flash) Here a comparison by the open kitchen
Before:

After:

I got something called Chicken Anna Maria, which was really good and I ended up taking half of it home )which was great the next day too): Chicken, mushrooms, and tomatoes with a light cream sauce:

Ethan got grilled Salmon with broccoli and mashed potatoes which he said was simple but also good.

For drinks I got a glass of Sangria which was perfect to have on a hot summer night.  Ethan got a Limoncello martini, which was a little too strong/tart for me but Ethan enjoyed it.

Our server was very pleasant and timely, which is always nice.   My sister goes to Bertucci’s all the time and alway ssays how great the servers are so they must do something right in their training.

As most people have seen, there is an abundance of can collectors in Framingham.  Particularly where I live, in in the downtown area.  I have mixed feelings about this.   I kind of feel like somehow it makes the area look not so great to have people pushing shopping carts full of cans, or walking with big full trash bags carried “santa-style” over their shoulders visiting house to house.  But part of me thinks “Why not?”.  If people are going to just throw away or recycle the cans, they might as well get some money if the original owners aren’t going to redeem them.  But then I wonder, is it worth it?  I’m guessing it is, but it takes 1,000 cans to make $50 so this must be a full-time job because it must take a lot of can hunting to get 1,000. 
Every trash day morning I hear the rattle of  a shopping cart coming down my street and it eventually stops in front of our house.  Technically there is nothing wrong with it, but it does feel a little weird to see someone pick through your trash/recycle.  I have to say though, the lady who can-collects on our street  is very mindful of putting anything that fell out onto the ground back into the trash and leaving it as she found it and securing the lid back on the trash can.  So I appreciate that and really have no problem with it because of that courtesy.  If the person who lets their dog poop where ever it wants had the same consideration, that would be nice.

At the former site of Chili’s will be the British Beer Company.  This is a small Massachusetts chain of 7 (soon to be 8 ) British style pubs.  I had not heard of these until now, but I checked out their website and it seems like a it’ll be a great addition to Route 9. why did dr prescribe ivermectin for tapeworms   Since most likely a small mom and pop restaurant will not open on Route 9, I think this will be the closest we’ll get.
On their website they say they have 100 beers and 40 of them are on tap.  They have an employee exchange and send random staff members to England to work at pubs there and help re-create the British pub experience here. ivermectina no sirve   I don’t know how well hat works but it’s an interesting concept.  They will also have live music, so I’m looking forward to checking that out too. dosis de ivermectina en humanos

Whole Foods is about an 18 min walk or 4 min drive and I like that it’s right across the street from Trader Joe’s.
In general, I like their mission and “whole food” and “green” concepts.  I got these great re-usable bags from there that I use for everything and getting 2 for $3 was definitely worth it for me.

My mom is a die-hard fan of Market Basket and I like to go there for produce (their fresh dates are fantastic) and to look at their beautiful donuts, but she gives me a hard time if I buy anything at WF and says things like “Oh, must be nice to buy your groceries at Whole Foods“.  Like I’m so fancy that I only buy my groceries there, but I don’t.  What I like about Whole Foods is that it’s a place nearby that I can go get some specialty items for a nice dinner or maybe some chocolate chips that don’t have high-fructose syrup, things that I don’t use every day.  Although I admit, it would be nice to buy all my groceries there and that’s where I was introduced to soy whipped cream which is so awesome I won’t go back to regular whipped cream.
But, I like to point out to my mom that I have found several items at Whole Foods that are the same price or actually cheaper there than at Market Basket and they weren’t even on sale.  
The only real problem I have with Whole Foods is that when I wanted some extra money, I tried several times to get a part-time job there and they wouldn’t hire me.  They have this online application that asks you all sorts of questions/statements that you can only answer yes or no (or agree/disagree) to like “You feel you deserve everything you have”. ?????? ??? ??   I answered all the questions honestly (as the way I tried to understand them) and they didn’t call.  I took a look around at the employees and  tried to figure out if they were exceptionally cheery or something but they’re not, some are, but some seems to be less enthusiastic to be there.  Just for kicks I filled out another application with an ultra cheery attitude, still nothing.  I saw they had an open house job night so I went and actually sat down with someone who, seemed to be about 10 years younger than me and didn’t seem interested in me from the start.  So I don’t know what the secret code is to work there. 
I ended up working my part-time job at the 400 Plus and there was a waitress there who mentioned that when she first moved here from Florida she worked at Whole Foods just to have something while she was looking for a job in her field and I remember saying “Oh my God, you did??  How did you answer the questions on the application??”  She laughed and said she really didn’t put much though into it and thought it was funny that I had such a hard time getting a job there. ????? ?????? ???????   So I don’t know what the deal was, but I still like shopping there.
Kind of ironic, just before I took this picture of the front of the store, I saw someone I kind of know through Town Meeting and he said “Oh hi, funny running into you here- Do you work here?”

While visiting the laundromat at sad plaza on Franklin St. we thought it was funny that they leave closing up the place to the last customer to get their stuff out of the dryer.   It’s good to see such trusting business-customer relations 🙂

Sometime last week, during our now seemigly daily trend of passing thunderstorms, we got a nice view of a rainbow over Route 9 by the Framingham pike entrance.

 As a quilter, it’s such a treat to have Fabric Place in walking distance of my house.  I really like that it’s a business near me that I can use and has a wide variety of anything sewing related.   It’s also a business that brings people who normally avoid downtown, down here so I consider it a shiny gem of the neighborhood.
They have bolts and bolts of all sorts of fabric, all kinds of threads, notions, books etc…  It’s two levels of sewing paradise!
 

They also offer classes, designing services and make custom draperies.  This summer they are offering a free class every Saturday of various topics, you can check out the schedule here.