Uneventful, but Filling

We (my parents and I) went out to the Nantucket Cafe and Grill tonight. We probably go there more frequently than anywhere else, even though it's 17 miles from our house. As some people reading this (ok, I only know of one person reading this) know, my true desired occupation of choice is that of a restaurant critic. I love going out to eat although I'm not as eager as I used to be, especially after coming home from a long day at work. Since I'm still on vacation, I was more than eager to go. Nantucket is a rather casual place with a light nautical theme. There aren't any preserved fish hanging on the walls, but it is vaguely reminiscent of a restaurant you might find near the shore. In fact, the owners originally had a restaurant in the Boston area. I had a combo with fried clams and shrimp, which is accompanied by fries and cole slaw. The fries were rather crispy tonight, which was a treat. Now, I've only had fried clams at one other eating establishment, one of the IBM cafeterias. Needless to say, they are much better at the Nantucket. Regardless of whether they are fried or are in their rich clam chowder, their clams have no resemblance to the erasers that one normally associates with the word.

One of the features of the Nantucket that I like best is their sample cake. They always have a sheetcake available, cut into approximately 1 1/2" cubes. It's just right if you feel like eating something sweet after your meal, but you don't feel like bursting afterwards. I've never been that crazy about white sheetcake, but their sample cake is really quite good. In fact, I've only been tempted to order a full dessert once, in the gazillion times we 've been there since we discovered them.
Part of this is due to their gigantic portions.

For those of you who don't live in the Triangle area in North Carolina, I have a bit of angst to share. I have been trying to come up with a decent title for this blog. "Lenore's Blog" and "Lenore Ramm" are way too boring. I thought of using "Flying Spuds From Space", but this was rejected by one reader, because I used it in my early teenage years. "Grilled Eggplant" was also nixed. Perhaps "Eclectic Glob of Tangential Verbosity"? That's it!

Nantucket Grill Blogging: Shrimp and Sea Bass

On Saturday, my 2nd Most Faithful Reader and I went to Nantucket Grill. We wanted to pick up a Non-Blackened Blackened Salmon Salad for my Most Faithful Reader, who is still looking after FIFO. My 2nd MFR had the grilled shrimp, as he always does. The shrimp are great, but it's served with polenta. Some people like polenta.

I chose the Sea Bass, for $14.99. It was served with pineapple salad, green beans, and Yukon Gold roasted potatoes. From a sustainability standpoint, I should have asked, but the menu didn't say that it was Chilean Sea Bass, which should be avoided. In any case, it was quite good and the potatoes were great. I enjoyed my leftovers this evening

Nantucket Grill

This past weekend, I went to Nantucket Grill, which is a place I don't go nearly often enough, considering how often my Most Faithful Readers go. You can see here that it used to be one of my regular destinations. It's in Durham County, but close to Chapel Hill, and is a 34 mile drive round-trip from my house, but it's worth it. They also have other locations, on Fayetteville Road, in Durham, and their original cafe at Ram's Plaza, in Chapel Hill.

One of the nice things that they've been doing for the last year or so is serving puffy-light rolls that are nice and warm. It's hard to beat warm rolls.
That night, I had cod fish and chips. The fish was good and crunchy and I'm guessing there was cornmeal in the batter. The chips weren't outstanding, but they were good with ketchup. Their cole slaw has more mayonnaise than I usually like, but it's good and it has chopped granny smith apple in it, which adds a nice and unusual flavor.

I highly recommend their crab cakes, which are served with a wonderful lemon sauce, asparagus and mashed potatoes. If you eat beef, the French onion soup is excellent. The lobster bisque and clam chowder are great, but are too rich for me. They have delicious pasta dishes and salads, too. If they have soft-shelled crabs as a special, they are splendid sauteed. My Most Faithful Reader gets a Blackened Salmon Salad almost every week (without the "blackening") and divides it into two meals each time. I am happy to report that the chicken pot pie is back on the menu, but they've replaced the puffed pastry with a biscuit, which I will have to try soon.

The Art of the Wrong Turn

Yesterday, our Blackboard Tech team met with the UNC Blackboard team at Nantucket Cafe. It was fun commiserating. I had only been there once for lunch before and I finally got to try their lobster, bacon and scallion quiche, which I had with a side salad. I felt as if I'd been spoiled by all the Refectory quiches, which are light in comparison. The Nantucket quiche was good, but way too rich. It had a croissant-like crust, which, again, was good, but was a little over the top. I was glad that I hadn't foolishly paired the quiche with a bowl of lobster bisque, no matter how good it it is.

Guitar practice was cancelled, so I made yet another trip to the Flying Fish with my parents. This time I got a Flying Mayan burrito, which contained black beans, sweet potatoes and avocado. I am not a fan of sweet potatoes, but it added a nice touch to the burrito.

Today, I went to the Forest at Duke to see AE play in the Durham Community Concert Band. It was hard to believe that it had been well over a year since I'd seen them play. I know two other members, TL, a ham radio operator, and RG, from the library. I enjoyed the music quite a bit and I was actually able to see AE play her French horn, because she was on the front row of the horn section and I was on the front row of the audience. Afterwards, AE and I went to Target and I was able to get a whole bunch of Annie Chun's noodle bowls. According to the link, I could actually buy them online for less, with free shipping, if I wanted to buy them in bulk.

Tonight, I went to a party at CV's house. I had a very good time and the food was good. I managed to only make one wrong turn on the way there, after I actually entered the development. I made no fewer than four wrong turns on the way back. I am so talented. I recovered very quickly in all cases, though, because it was easy to find places to turn around. I think it's actually easier to find one's way around this time of year, because it's easy to determine if you've been down a road before, due to all the Christmas lights.

CDC and Pancakes

Last weekend had two major elements, creative fillings for our crepe style pancakes and our annual Thanksgiving weekend visit to the Carolina Designer Craftsmen show.

We made the pancakes as usual and were planning to have them with filled with ffresh strawberries and syrup. I had the semi-brilliant idea that I could melt some Baker's semi-sweet chocolate and drizzle it over the strawberries, skipping the syrup. That turned out to be a wonderful and decadent combination.

Last Saturday, I went to the Carolina Designer Craftsmen show with my dad and AE. It was great to see old friends from Womancraft and other craftsmen that I've been talking to and buying from at CDC for so many years. As always, I got earrings made by Janet Harriman and Nell Chandler. I also couldn't resist gorgeous porcelain earrings made by Tim Garvin of Blue Bus Studio and well as sterling ones by Joanna Goldberg. I coveted a lot of other jewelry, pottery, furniture, dyed silk and woven blankets.

Of course, I managed to sneak in a falafel sandwich from Neomonde's cafe area.

Afterwards, AE, my parents and I met at Nantucket Cafe and Grill. I decided to have the chicken pot pie for the Nth time. Sunday night, I decided that we should try the leftover pot pie filling in leftover crepe pancakes. It worked beautifully. Yes, you did read that right. One serving from Nantucket resulted in four dinner servings, with a little help from the pancakes. That's pretty good!

Settling In

I've been doing a lot of unpacking, dusting, cleaning and buying. I haven't cooked anything yet, but I will do that as soon as I have something to cook in. Actually, I have some corningware that I inherited from my grandmother, but I need something in which I can cook an omelet, since I have leftover Korean food from the other day.

I bought some patio furniture from CostCo made out of cumaru wood. It's supposedly very comfortable and fairly nice looking. I got six chairs and a table, which will take up most of my deck. Hopefully without the leaves and tucking a couple chairs in a corner, I will still be able to get around find. The wood is kind of pinkish in the sunlight, but the brochure assured me that it will be gray eventually. The pink actually goes pretty well with the brick. Cumaru wood is supposedly farmed so I don't feel as if I am personally responsible for the destruction of the rain forest. ...although only 71% of the wood is supposed to come from responsibly maintained forests, so I should feel 29% guilty. It seemed like a good deal.
The amazing thing is that all seven boxes fit in my van, even though the table is huge.

Lowe's has been out of little GE microwaves since Monday. I like them because that's what we have at my parents' house and at work. The Express Cook feature is so handy. They were supposed to come in yesterday and last night and my dad and I dropped by after dinner at Nantucket. They had one box there under the display model. Unfortunately, it had a large dent. The scary thing is that they probably would have sold it to me anyway, but at least they said they wouldn't put it back out for sale. Hopefully more will come in soon.
Today I brought leftover pizza with me to my parents' house to microwave it there.

I've been having fun with a new AT&T cordless phone/corded phone with answering machine that I got from Sam's Club. So far I'm pretty pleased with it. Most of the phones from Sam's and CostCo were brands I'd never heard of, so I was reluctant to get them. This one has a speaker phone, too, which seems to be very good. My minimum criteria for a cordless phone is that one can adjust the volume. My parents have a Radio Shack one and you can't hear half the conversations on it, in part because you can't adjust it. One important thing here is that I now have a phone line! They haven't buried the cable yet and it's just lying on the ground, but it does work.

One of the acquisitions that I'm most pleased about is a Swiffer duster with a telescoping handle. (It's not hard to make me happy.) It's the coolest thing and I can think of all kinds of other uses for the handle. For example, I think I can just attach a sponge or a damp paper towel with a rubber band. I could attach a paint brush for a large painting. I could whack people with it.

The PSNC Energy crew is back cleaning up the mess from Saturday. I was on a temporary gas line and they switched it to the new main line. They needed to bleed the line at my house a guy with a large dump truck came over to my parents' house to tell us while I was over here. Much to my mom's horror, some of her plants got run over by the truck. I drove back home and watched them bleed the line at my meter and my hot water heater and went back. Apparently, I have a nice new load of gravel on my driveway now.

As I mentioned earlier, I went to Nantucket with my dad last night. They had a delicious special, grilled halibut over herbed rice with lemon butter, served with roasted corn.

Blu Blogging : Lobster Roll

I don't make it to Blu Seafood and Bar for lunch very often, but I've been eager to go have one of their new lobster rolls, since it's been added as one of their new lunch menu items. Fortunately, when I was there for dinner one evening last week, they still had a few left over from lunch. It was really very good. As you can see, it was packed with lobster and, perhaps more importantly, it didn't have too much mayonnaise. Overall, I would rate it higher than Nantucket Cafe and Grill's lobster roll and I hope I'll escape work one of these days and head back to get another one soon.

Next Wednesday, Blu is going to be having a special sushi dinner! You can check their events page for more information.

Changes, Food, Food and Disdain

Before I start rambling about food I've eaten, I thought I should point out some of the changes I've made to the blog recently. I've added a Google Reader module that contains items from other blogs, which I've shared from my reader and I think are worth checking out. I've also added a del.icio.us module so you can see what sort of things I've bookmarked recently. I'm working on migrating some things over from my original web page, so there are some new links that started out there, but may have new content. Finally, I've added a new subscribe button to make it easier to read this blog in a syndicated format, in the aggregator of your choice. Note that this feed does not currently contain the comments.

Sunday morning, I had brunch with AE at Nosh. Look at those yummy buttermilk pancakes. I woke up craving pancakes and they just happened to have a pancake special.

Sunday night, I cooked dinner for my dad. I was feeling experimental, so I made spaghetti sauce out of Paul Newman's tomato sauce, a can of whole soybeans, a foil packet of (effectively) canned salmon and ginger. I have yet to figure out how much ginger you need to add to something to make affect the flavor substantially, so I should probably look at some recipes that call for it. Well, my dad deemed the dish "interesting" which he later updated to "not that bad". I think it was really ok after adding half a cup of parmesan to my serving, but I haven't been eager to eat the leftovers.

I'm not sure how long Pauly Dogs has been on Duke's campus, but I've avoided it since I don't eat beef and I love hot dogs. On Monday, I decided to be brave and try my first veggie/soy dogs since my previous valiant and unsuccessful attempts a couple of years ago. I ordered one with sauerkraut and spicy mustard and Paul(y) thought I had to be a yankee. He seemed quite surprised that I'm not, but I did explain that I'm half-German. So, it was actually pretty good. I was impressed. The dogs were made by Morningstar Farms and either I've forgotten what hot dogs taste like in 3 years or the texture was actually pretty accurate. I'm pleased, because it's nice small lunch that's comparatively inexpensive and the cart is just across the Bryan Center Walkway from the "Passion Paradise" smoothies at the Keva Juice cart.

Monday night, I went to a computer science faculty candidate recruitment dinner at SR's house. It was fun talking to people from the department and TN has beautiful tropical fish tanks.

I had lunch at the Refectory with NP yesterday We ended up sitting near and talking to Debbie Moose, a writer who specializes in food. I told her that she had my dream job, but I don't think she knew just how serious I was! I had chicken pot pie and it was great. It certainly rivaled, if not surpassed, the chicken pot pie at the Nantucket Cafe and the style was very similar.

Last night, my dad and I went to the monthly Durham FM Association board meeting. I actually enjoyed this one, because it was held entirely at the Bennet Point Grill, the way it used to be. The service was uncharacteristically slow and the fried oysters in my usual Caesar salad were much cooler in temperature than I would have liked, but the meeting was short and we had a fun crowd attending.

Right now I'm watching the Duke v.s. Maryland basketball game, including the commercials. I know this will be unpopular with many of my geeky readers, but I think that the realistic violent video games that they are advertising these days, particularly those that turn on-going military conflicts into "games" are sick. I wonder how much money the pentagon is funneling into the industry to boost recruitment, if not accuracy.

Hamfest and Free Cake

Well, if only one fifth of a person attends due to reading this in my blog, it will be worth it:
This Saturday is the Nth Annual Durham FM Association Hamfest, which will be held in the vicinity of Bahama this year. It's a great opportunity to wander around, talk to friends , look at all the random electronic parts, feel nostalgic while looking at old computers and stock up on reasonably priced LED flashlights. You will also be able to buy coconut macaroons and brownies. Yes, I'll be spending my Friday evening baking again this year. If you are interested in going and you can't figure out how to get there based on the information in the link, let me know and I will be happy to confuse you further.

I have been incredibly busy the last couple of days. GM went to a Math-Biology conference at Duke and stayed in the Purple Guest Room. We went out to dinner with friends numerous times, which required lots of spamming as the plans evolved. Tuesday night we played a crazy game that GM invented. Just to give you an idea, RN said that people who overheard us in the Barnes'N'Noble where we were playing probably thought we were from an insane asylum.

In other earthshaking news, Nantucket Cafe & Grill no longer has chicken pot pie on the menu. This is a horrific tragedy and I need to write to them. I wasn't angered as greatly as I could have been because they had a soft shell crab special and they have decided to offer free giant pieces of cake (any non-cheesecake cake on their cake menu) with each entree, Monday through Thursday. Their sauteed soft shell crabs are excellent, too.

Tonight I went to a small party at SY's new house and it was unbelievably pleasant having dinner on her porch while listening to all the birds sing and talking with my friends. The weather and the conversation couldn't have been better.

The other night Venus and the moon were positioned such that they were right night to each other. It was worth going all the way to the end my driveway to get a clear view. I thought that all my photos were blurry, but they are actually quite nice, so I'm very pleased. It still doesn't compare to actually seeing it, though.

Grasshopper Food , Fun and Farewells

On July 4th, I spent the afternoon working on minutes from the previous Durham FM Association meeting and made some earrings. It was nice to have a day off.

For dinner, I conducted an experiment that turned out well. I toasted about a third of a bag of coconut in a pan, in the oven. It was set to 360 degrees and I stirred it every few minutes. In the frying pan, I sauteed a few tablespoons of minced garlic. Eventually, I added a few handfuls of pine nuts. I served it with basmati rice, so when the rice was close to ready, I added the juice of one lime, some dried orange peel, thyme, black pepper and thawed cooked shrimp. It wasn't quite enough liquid, so I added a quarter cup of water. When the liquid came to a boil again, I dumped all the toasted coconut with a quarter cup of fresh coarsely chopped mint leaves. My parents, as guinea pigs, seemed to really like it.


The rest of the week I furiously tried to get everything done that I could in preparation for being on vacation for two weeks. Amazingly enough, I did manage to leave in time to go to guitar practice that Friday night. There I suggested that we try playing Blownin' in The Wind and Puff the Magic Dragon, two of my favorites. One of the chords I needed to play for Blowin' in the Wind was an F#minor, which is a barre chord and at that point I couldn't play barre chords. HB joined us and we headed for Grasshopper.

Grasshopper, one of Bakatsias's restaurants, is extremely hard to get into on a Friday night, so we were lucky. It's even harder to get a decent parking space there, but we managed, after some negotiating. JA and I ordered summer rolls. JJ and I ordered calamari, which was excellent. For my entree, I ordered mussles and the pork ribs appetizer.














Both were wonderful, but it was way too much food for me. Well, at little too much, at least. The windchimes were right above and behind my head.


That Saturday, July 8th, I spent most of the day wrapping presents and washing dishes. It was AE's birthday, so I had to wrap the earrings I made for her the previous weekend. I also wrapped a remote control dalek that I was planning to give GM as a going-away/very early birthday present. I wrapped the dalek in equations wrapping paper that I got from Think Geek. Of course, I got the dalek from Think Geek, too.

I picked up AE and KD and we went to the barbecue in JB and EG's neighbor, JA's, back yard. It was JA's birthday, too.
The weather was fantastic. We played four Gamewright card games, Loot, Wig Out, Moose in the House and Sleeping Queens. The last one was the most creative and complicated. All these are games have such great and elaborate illustrations. EG's friend from highschool, L, played cards with us. As you can see, we also had fun with bubble soap. JB was eager to be featured in another blog post and GL, the owner of Shade Tree Coffee, is standing behind him. As we were leaving, GM and I said our farewells, since I was leaving that Tuesday and he was moving to Charleston on Wednesday. Finally, after all that, we decided to all have lunch the next day.

The next day, I met GM and AE at Madhatter's Bake Shop for lunch. GM had played the oboe at his church that morning and the congregation has been going to Madhatter's and other local restaurants for a while. I had eggs benedict, which was good, but the yolks were overcooked. My cappuchino was very good. Afterwards, we went to Southpointe and saw Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest. It was good and entertaining, but not nearly as good as the original.

GM and I said our farewells for the second and last time and then I headed home so I could go to Nantucket Cafe and Grill for dinner, with my parents. I had fish and chips and it was good.

Unstructured Diligence and Food

You would think that my not working would mean that I would be relaxing and saving money on gas. No, I'm afraid not. For one thing, looking for a job is full time, plus overtime. Secondly, I've been out to Durham or RTP every day since my last day at IBM.

Wednesday, I met CL, JL and SH for lunch at Rudino's. I, of course, had the Spinach Sophia grinder. That is the ultimate meal. It was fun to see them. I went to DBM afterwards to pick up more resume paper and meet with MB.

Thursday, I met JJ at the Baba Ghannouj Bistro for lunch. I hadn't realized until just now that it's a local chain. It's at Erwin Square, which is the same building as Parizade. I had a veggie platter and the food was excellent. It came with three falafels, baba ghannouj, hummus, "cucumber sauce", a huge portion of salad, and a big bowl of warm pita. I ordered tabouli for my salad.

I forgot to mention in my last post that when I went to JJ and JA's house that they had Locopops. Their neighbors recently opened a popsicle shop on Hillsborough Road, in Durham, next to Don Hill's Lock Shop. They have very unusual flavors, including avacado! I tried the Lavendar Cream and that was delicious. I really want to try Tamarind, Pineapple Mint, and Chocolate Orange. I'd like to try them all, but that's just a start. I need to go to the shop and take my cooler. Considering the hot weather we've been having, that would be the only way to get them home. From what I've heard, this is the hottest July on record since 1948.

Friday, I had a phone interview, which I felt went really well. I should hear something next week. I'm very excited about that particular job, so I hope I get it. That night I made an interesting concoction for my parents. I made sauteed onions, orange juice, honey, pine nuts, rasisins and cinnamon with barely warmed smoked salmon pieces over rice. It was good, but I think it would have been somewhat better with chicken or shrimp. I also think it would be good with toasted coconut and pineapple chunks added to it.

Today I went to MC's party, in Creedmoor. It was great to see everyone from work that I hadn't seen in a week and a half. The food was great, too, particularly KC's potato salad. They have a pool and it looked as if the kids and a couple of the adults were having a great refreshing time. They have improved I-85 considerably, so it wasn't a bad trip at all.

Tonight, my parents and I went to Nantucket Cafe & Grill and I tried their chicken teriyaki kabobs, which I hadn't noticed on the menu before. They were good and had huge chunks of grilled breast meat. Normally I prefer fried dark meat, so it's saying a lot that I liked it. The meat was very tender and flavorful.

I've also spent lots of time sending e-mail to various people I met at the job fair and interviewers. I've been looking at job sites and applying to places. It's very time consuming, but it's kind of fun.

The Long Weekend

On Friday, my parents and I went to Oishii, in Chapel Hill. Just as we arrived, the fire alarm went off at the dry cleaner's a couple of doors down. The sprinkler system had turned on at there was water pouring out onto the sidewalk. There's nothing like a little excitement before a meal. After dinner, we looked and everything looked fine inside. Dinner was excellent. I had an order of shrimp shumai dumplings and a dragon roll.

Saturday, I mostly cleaned the house.

Sunday, GM, AE and FT came over. We ordered pizza, watched an episode of the Young Ones, and several Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy BBC Miniseries episodes. The pizza was great, because AE and I got one with anchovies and onions. I've been slowly discovering that I like anchovies. When I was about five or six years old, I had an anchovy pizza when we were in Indiana for my uncle's wedding. They also have anchovies on the Village Salad at Taverna Nikos. For years I didn't eat them at all, but I've been eating more and more of them each time and gotten to like them. So, this was the first time I've had them on pizza in 24 years and I rather liked them. The Young Ones is very strange.

I didn't really do much on the 4th, but my parents and I went to Nantucket for dinner. GM is letting me borrow the 5th season of Babylon 5, which I missed when it moved to cable. We watched the first episode.

Tuesday night, I went out to dinner with JJ and JA to El Corral, in Durham. I had grilled shrimp in fried flour tortillas covered with melted white cheese and guacamole sauce. It was quite good.


Wednesday, there was a frog crawling around on my windows in the great room. That's pretty high up. Since my camera died, I had to use my Treo 650. It's pretty dark, but hopefully you can make it out. Speaking of my phone, I downloaded some cool software from mytreo.net for it. I got VolumeCare so I can actually hear using the earpiece, rather than always relying on the speakerphone. I also got Volkeys which allow one to scroll with the volume buttons on the side. Like most Treo software packages, they are shareware, so I'll have to decide if they are really worth it. I'm guessing that VolumeCare definitely will be.

Today I went back to work, checked on the status of things and packed up a few other things. I went to out to lunch to Rudino's with BO. A few other friends of mine had planned to go there today, but that was cancelled. I still wanted a Spinach Sophia grinder, so I thought that would be a good place.

It's easy being with green.

I forgot to mention that on Thursday of last week (if you consider Sunday at the end of the week and many people don't) I went to the annual Duke basketball banquet. It consists of a meal, which our tickets didn't include, and an awards ceremony. The ceremony consists of lots of long speaches given by the coaches and graduating seniors. The seniors tend to get overly emotional. There are also filn clips set to music chosen by either Mrs. Krzyzewski (past years) or one of the Krzyzewski daughters. When I first started going to these, back in1986, all the players hung around for autographs afterwards, which was loads of fun. Most of them made a quick escape this year. I did manager to accost Shavlik Randolph and David McClure. As the success of the team has grown over the years, it's been harder and harder to get tickets to the banquet, so I hadn't been in a long time. I was able to get another autograph from Coach K and was able to tell him that I first got his autograph 19 years ago. Somewhere we have a badly detiorated VHS tape of my getting that autograph, because the local ABC affiliate, WTVD, put it on the news. I didn't see any television cameras this year, because I guess the novelty of a successful season in Duke basketball as worn off a bit since then.

I was going to mention something else from that week that I'd forgotten. I need to start jotting down what I want to mention in my Treo 650. I can't believe that I haven't thought of that before.

Did I do anything this week? I went to Eastern Lights for dinner on Wednesday and afterwards worked on my mom's birthday present. I made an ornament type thing to hang in the window using beads and gold-filled wire. I thought it turned out pretty well. Hopefully it will look nice hanging up.

Thursday was her birthday, so we went to Kemp's for dinner. I was able to eat oysters. I'd gone to Rudino's for lunch that day and eaten another entire Spinach Sophia grinder. Those things are just fantastic. In any case, I wasn't overly hungry at dinner time. After that, my dad suggested that we pick up some pastries at the Coffee Cafe around the corner from my house and continue to celebrate at my house. I was really stuffed after that. They had a chocolate "croissant", which was wonderful. It's not like any croissant that I've ever had, but it's very good. I think the dough is more like you'd expect with a danish or something.

On Friday evening, I met my parents at the Duke Pre-Majors Advising annual picnic. The weather was very pleasant and they had good fried chicken. Again, I'd had a big lunch of Shrimp Pad Thai at Champa, so I wasn't terribly hungry. A meal consisting of chicken wings and brownies was pretty nice, though.

We went to Nantucket Cafe & Grill last night and I tried their pork ribs. They are very good. The meat comes off the bone very easily and they are generous with their sauce. Not bad. I have leftovers in the fridge, which I'm looking forward to having for lunch this week.

Yesterday, after going to the OCRA Ham Radio breakfast, I spent almost the entire day making jewelry. I made myself three bracelets and five pairs of earrings. The earrings were mostly very small, so they were quick and easy. It was fun and it will be nice to have more jewelry, since I so desperately need it. Right.

It is so very nice and green around here again. I really love spring. Lots of things are blooming in my yard now. The "stratosphere" daffofils are still blooming along my walk. The dianthus is blooming along the concrete pad in front of my house. The bright green oak leaves are just fantastic, though. You can just barely see the neighboring houses now. The good thing is that I was pleasantly surprised at how it looked without leaves. Several people have said that it almost looks as if I live in the mountains, because this is a fairly high spot compared to the rest of the area. It's definitely nice to be able to appreciate all of the seasons.

I blame it on the Christmas letters.

OK, I am now really behind in my blogging. I'm going to blame it all on my big Christmas letter sending project, which is also behind. It never hurts to have an inanimate scapegoat. I'm going to quickly and briefly write about all the things that I did that I happened to jot down something about in draft form and move on. I've had a great weekend and I'd rather write about that while it's fresh in my mind than something that I did two or more weeks ago. So, this is the cliff notes version of my life in the past two weeks, particularly if you've lost most of the pages toward the end.

At some point, my dad and I went to the Nantucket Cafe and had lunch. I tried their eggsalad for the first time and it was good. I also discovered that I really like their lobster bisque, even though I had it before and it was too rich for me.

Over the course of the past several weeks, my dad and I have visited Lowe's approximately 58 times, for various reasons. My dad added loads of Closetmaid shelves, we needed to go back to get things I'd gotten charged for but were left behind and we needed a conduit for the connection between the transfer switch and my future whole house generator.

On New Year's Eve, we ate at Taverna Nikos for lunch and I was planning to have the grilled kasseri cheese sandwich, but I ate something else instead. No, wait, I did have that. I made banana bread that evening, which turned out absolutely beautifully. It was done in the middle! At midnight we all checked into the Possum Trot net on my ham radio and we "admired" the tree again.

On New Year's Day, I met JJ for coffee at Blue. Actually we met at Ooh-La-Latte first and they were closed. It was a beautiful day.

The following day, I met JJ, JA and EB for brunch at Vin Rouge. MP met us there later. It was delicious and loads of fun.

At one point I went to Fowler's with JJ, CL and PS. I had a bowl of Manhattan clam chowder and a wonderful slice of salmon in puffed pastry.

I went to another Orange County Radio Amateurs breakfast last Saturday, which was fun.

Tuesday night, I went to the Durham FM Association monthly meeting. There was a fantastic turnout, because Frank Terhaar-Yonkers, W4FTY, gave a talk about high power amateur rocketry. It was obvious that he was incredibly enthusiastic about his hobby. JH came to the meeting, which was very cool.

Other than that, everything before this weekend is kind of muddled together in my memories. There was lots of beautiful weather, most of which I missed in my office, but appreciated when going to and from my van. I've spent a lot of time working late and mailing out "Christmas" letters. I still have several that need mailing, which means that I'm planning to write something in them. At least, that's the plan.

C is for Cookie

One of the things that startles me about blogging more frequently is that I try to think about what I did a few days ago and realize that I don't remember whole days of my life.  On the other hand, perhaps it is better to reflect upon the more memorable highlights of each week than relate the banalities of laundry lint.
 
Friday night, I went to Southpoint to meet GM and several of his friends.  We ate at Rockfish, ate at the Marble Slab Creamery and saw Shrek 2.  Rockfish was good.  We started out with fried calamari, which was into extremely thin ringlets and served with three dipping sauces.  I ordered fried oysters, which were battered in cornmeal.  I generally prefer that they not use cornmeal batter, but I gobbled them up very quickly.   At the Marble Slab, they have a new flavor, cinnamon, which I combined with shredded coconut and sliced almonds.
Shrek 2 was very funny and the graphics were cool.
 
If you want a good laugh, take a look at this well done political music video.
 
CL and JL came over for lunch on Saturday.  I made chocolate chip cookies and tuna salad.  The tuna salad contained tuna, mayonnaise, parsley, red grapes and celery.   I had a great time showing off what had changed since they saw the pre-paint version of my house.   We sat around talking about lots of stuff.  Afterwards, we drove over to my parents' house so they could pick up my old thirty gallon aquarium.  I've been planning to give it to them for ages, because I don't think I'll ever have the time or inclination to set up that big an aquarium anytime in the near or distant future.  It's just too much work and fish die.   I hung out there a while, admiring all the work that my parents have done or had done to the house.  Everything is painted now except for the screened-in porch, which is in the process of being rescreened.  After I got back home, I made another salad.  I intended to make another tuna salad, because there weren't enough leftovers to feed my parents and me, but I ended up leaving the tuna out.  Instead I put in lots of grapes, LOTS of parsley, celery, walnuts and the juice of two limes.  It was....sour!  I actually thought it was quite good, but I like eating whole limes as a main course.  My dad keeps telling me that I need to taste my salads before I serve them.  I wonder why? 
 
Today I made the cookies from the rest of the cookie dough, which I had refrigerated.  I got the recipe from the wife of a amateur radio operator, who makes nice soft cookies.  They are definitely yummy, but very rich.  I used 24 ounces of chocolate chips and the recipe only called for 18, so they are very chocolately.  They are large cookies and I can only eat two at a time.  Otherwise, I washed a lot of dishes and did three loads of laundry.  Tonight we went to Nantucket for dinner and I had an excellent serving of cod.

Lots and Lots of Books, All about...

OK, I'm finally exhausted again. I unpacked quite a few boxes today, which mostly contained books. Books usually are very heavy and dusty. I really enjoy looking through all my old stuff. It's amusing looking at old annuals, in particular.

My parents and I went to Nantucket Cafe & Grill for dinner. This time I had shrimp stuffed with crabmeat.

I keep seeing this ads for this on-line dating service that screens out married people and convicted felons. There's something disturbing about that. If nothing else, it seems awfully pessimistic. You may not find someone you like there, but at least whoever you find won't have killed anyone...yet.

Food and Furniture

Yesterday was an excellent day. First, I went over to CL and JL's house for brunch. They have a really cool new house and it was great to see it for the first time. JJ, JA and KC also came over. C and JL cooked some tasty bacon, pancakes and eggs. With a large bowl of fruit, it was a splendid breakfast. Yes, after watching JL fry the bacon, it was not possible to just skip it. Bacon is one of my favorite foods. Ok, maybe it was possible, but... I seem to be eating not swimming meat about once a month.

After brunch, CL, JL and I went to Nowell's to look at furniture. I've been wanting to pick out a dining room table and chairs. It all started because I picked out a nifty chandelier and I wanted some nice furniture to go with it. I found some beautiful cherry dining furniture made by Skovby. I'm going to wait until I move in to order, so I can figure out the best sized table to get once the rest of my furniture is in place. Nowell's is a wonderful furniture store. We've been buying Scandinavian furniture from them for as long as I can remember. It was fun looking at all their furniture with CL while JL tested the recliners.

After I got back home, my parents and I went to the Nantucket Cafe & Grill. This time, I chose my meal wisely and had my favorite crabcakes with asparagus, mashed potatoes and lemon sauce. Afterwards, I finally picked out cabinent knobs and drawer pulls! For some strange and unknown reason, that one was one of the most difficult decisions I've made so far.

Today it was nice and sunny out, so we ate outside for lunch. This time I avoided sunburn by getting out my sun umbrella before I started to get too pink.

An Early Weekend

This afternoon, my boss's boss came by the office and told me I could take the rest of the day off. I'm not sure if she did this because I've been working really hard or it's a holiday. I finally ended up leaving an hour later, at 4pm and noticed that there was actually only one other person there. A lot of people worked from home today anyway.

I realized no one was home at my parents' house, so I went over to the new house. It was great wandering around by myself, taking pictures and appreciating all the recent improvements. The weather was perfect, too.

Once my parents got home, we drove to the Nantucket Cafe & Grill. The host pointed out that my parents had been there three times without me and wondered if I spent all my time out with friends. I said that sometimes I'd been working and he didn't seem too convinced, but he was probably just giving me a hard time given that he has daughters of his own who also abandon him. Their menu had changed even since my parents' last visit and it was a lot more complicated. I usually have a hard enough time making up my mind what I want to order without new entrees and combinations. I ended up ordering calimari and New England clam chowder. That was a mistake, because I needed something lighter with one or the other of those. The chowder is so rich and I'm just not used to having that much heavy cream. One thing that's very nice is that they will let you get fresh fruit with a sandwich instead of fries. I ended up eating most of my mom's fruit that came with her lobster roll.

One of the things I have to do this weekend is pick out drawer pulls and cabinet knobs. I have a catalog, but I suspect I'm going to have a hard time making a decision. Technically, I don't even need hardware, because the fronts are shaped such that you can put your fingers around the back edge. I think pulls would help greatly, however, on some of the larger drawers, especially once they are filled.

I looked at Orkut before writing this and I noticed a few links seemed useful and interesting. For those of you who are from North Carolina and have wondered about various road construction projects, you can search and see how things are going with the NC DOT Progress Report. If you've been wanting to listen to Air America Radio, but didn't want to download the proprietary Real Audio, you can download Real Alternative and be listening to Al Franken in no time.