Last night Laz Parking was busy cleaning up the MBTA parking lot. This morning the parking lot was open and full with cars. There were fewer parking spaces due to the large snow piles. This effectively means that the parking lot is 100% full on the weekdays.

If your traveling to Boston from Framingham and don't normally park in the MBTA parking lot, chances are that there won't be available parking spaces. Your best bet is the Hollis Court Parking Lot in the rear of the Store 24 and is a daily lot. $4 a day parking.

Framingham commuters are unable to use the MBTA parking lot because Laz Parking didn't plow the main parking lot after last Saturday's storm. The parking lot directly next to the station did appear to get plowed, and several cars were seen in the parking lot covered with snow.

Commuters were surprised to find out that two days after the storm, the parking lot barely got plowed. Even more surprising is that parking lot was still not plowed when commuters came home, leaving many to wonder where to park tomorrow. This parking area handles about 140 cars.

Currently the only alternative to parking at the MBTA commuter station is using the Pearl Street garage, however, just last week the garage was closed for daily parking. Commuters have to resort to talking to local merchants to park in their parking lot for the day.

There's some big changes happening at the Pearl Street Garage in Framingham. Regular monthly pass users can no longer purchase their monthly ticket at the entrance of the garage. In addition, the garage is now closed for daily parking and overnight parking.

This is part of a long term plan to modernize the garage. The Framingham Facilities Management team hopes to implement some type of automatic gate in the garage within the next couple of months. While this is going on, Monthly pass holders will now have to get their pass at the Facilities Management from the town hall.

While this is very inconvenient, keep in mind that the Pearl Street garage is still the best deal in town, at least for Framingham residences. There's two ways to get a pass, visit room 133 at the Framingham Town hall between 8:30 - 5. You can also send a check to Facilities Management, before the end of the month, to get next month's pass. You can contact Facilities Management at 508-532-5485.

Red Sox fans will want to take note that there's no daily parking at the garage. The Framingham MBTA stop may not be an option as the MBTA parking lot is full from daily commuters. I'll blog later about some ideas on where to park for Red Sox games.

Note: The parking lot will be monitored by Framingham Police and they will be enforcing the parking rules. Just because there isn't someone at the garage doesn't mean that you get a free parking spot. Not only will your car get a ticket, but it may get towed too!

Recently I wrote a blog posting with an update on the parking situation at the Framingham MBTA station. I want to follow up with some tips about the station based on my year and a half experience taking the commuter rail every day.

The cheapest monthly parking is at the Framingham parking garage on Pearl Street. Some business offer cheaper prices by renting out their space. The garage is the best option for the winter months because you don't need to dig out your car after a long day. (I have also seen some cars get flooded out because they park in the parking lot behind the Park Street Baptist Church.)

If you park at the MBTA parking lot, or the Framingham garage, your best bet is to take the cross over bridge if you take any of the evening rush hour trains to Framingham. This is because the walk is overall shorter and in the winter time the entire walkway is completely cleared. The Waverly street walkway is not 100% clear by the Old Station Steakhouse and can be icy.

The train is about 95% on time, so do what you can to get their early! The bells at the train station go off about 30 seconds before the train arrives. Most people that are in the Framingham MBTA parking lot will make the train. I have seen people drive in and park and sprint to the train and make it within plenty of time.

During the morning rush hour, there's usually 3 areas to board the train.The best place to board is towards the head of the train, which in the morning is just under the crossover bridge. The first cars are the closest to the entrance for Back Bay and South Station.

The quiet car is the last car on the train, and at the Framingham stop that's the handicap boarding. However, I have found that regardless of where you sit on the train most people are quiet. Every once in a while you end up near someone who just bump into someone for the first time in so long and you get the pleasure of hearing all about their business. (I once had the pleasure of hearing someone on a conference call for most of the duration to Boston.)

There is wireless access on the commuter rail, it was the first rail to offer such service, however its not always reliable as the wireless service is really bad in parts of Wellsley and Natick. This is true for cell phone services. I have found once I made it past route 128 in Newton, the cellular and Internet service is fairly reliable.

During really bad weather, the Natick Station can flood up and this will cause delays on the rail. There's nothing you can do, other than bring a good book to read or plan to take a later train and hope that the flood dries up.

There's always some taxis waiting at the Framingham train station. Almost every evening rush hour train I have seen several taxis waiting.

There is a shuttle SUV from Philips that drops off and picks up passengers. I don't know much about their service, but their they are the only company that provides this service. This is worth looking into if your considering applying for a job at Philips.

At the Back Bay station, the Framingham train always leaves from track five or seven. Since April, it has been track seven due to construction at the Yawkey Station. If you are coming from the Copley Square area you don't need to go through the station, you can enter through the stairs across the street from the station.

Last week we decided to try out J & M Diner Inc in Framingham. We are always on the lookout for a good breakfast place, and the reviews for J & M Diner have been really good, so we decided to give it a try.

The restaurant size is small with a mix of tables and counter seats. I can only imagine that it's a very busy place on the weekends. We ate on a weekday and there were only a few tables that were open and it appear that there were a lot of regular customers, which is always a good sign.

We received a cheerful welcome at the door and were promptly seated. The menu had lots of options and we were at a lost as to what to try, everything on the menu looked good. There's a large whiteboard in the back listing all the Today's Specials.

I decided to go for the Wicked Sinful French Toast, it seemed to be unique and something different to try. The menu described it as, 'Fresh baked cinnamon danish. Cut in half, batter dipped french toast style. Grilled in butter, cinnamon & drizzled with a sweet icing.' I asked for bananas for a topping.

With the help from the server, we also got a single caramel panacake with Banana with a side of home fries. This was listed as one of the specials, they also had one with apples but that one sold out.

We didn't wait too long for our food, and they were very attentative to when our coffee was low. When the food did arrive, I was worried that the table wouldn't be big enough for all the food that we had. The pancake was huge with lots of bananas and there was so much home fries that we couldn't eat it all.

The food was delicious and we weren't able to eat all our food because we were stuff. The Wicked Sinful French Toast was very sweet and there was just enough on the plate that it didn't seem like it was too much.

We'll certainly go back to J & M Diner the next time we decide to eat out for breakfast. This is our new favorite breakfast in Framingham! If your looking for a great place to eat breakfast before a fun day at shopping in Framingham/Natick, check out J& M Diner!

Note: They only accept cash, there is an ATM in the plaza.