Friday, April 13, 2012

A Bit of This, A Tad of That

Yes, I've been slacking on the posts here. Sorry. Been a busy little while. I'll try to get on track next week. Meanwhile, no review today. This is the post that should have gone up Monday.

Last Saturday was my birthday. I really don't mind birthdays, other than the fact that I have a hard time believing the math. According to my calculator (which I am sure must be broken), I am 57 this year. I don't disbelieve it because I don't want to be 57. I really don't worry so much about the numbers. It's just that I don't feel like I should be 57. Oh, I've got aches and pains, my knee protests far too much, and there's also all that gray hair... But, I don't know, 57 seems like it should be old, and I just don't feel old. So, therefore, something must be wrong with the math. Oh, well, I never did like math much anyway!

We went to dinner at Unum's in Nashua, NH on Friday night. Very nice, good food, lovely atmosphere. The BaldMan had a bouquet of flowers delivered there and it was waiting on our table. He's nice like that! There is a beautiful dark wood shelving unit along one wall that has decorative items as well as a large wine rack in it. We were sitting in front of it, and a guy (I think it may have been the owner. He was at least a manager) came over to get a bottle of wine, and stopped to talk for a moment. Of course, he asked about the flowers. After we ate, our waiter brought me a dish of vanilla ice cream with a candle in it. He lit the candle and set it down, saying: "You have to blow out a candle for your birthday!" Then he asked, "Do you embarass easily?" I said, no, not really. So he turned around and announced to the whole place that the "lady over here behind the pretty flowers" was having a birthday. I, of course, was not going to let him think he HAD embarassed me, so I waved my hands and said, "That would be me!" Everyone clapped and I got some "Happy Birthdays". It was nice.

I started with an Elderflower, a nice take on a cosmopolitan, with vodka, elderflower liquer, white cranberry juice and lime juice. Then we split a grilled hearts of romaine salad. I had seared foie gras with goat cheese, a fruit compote and toasted almonds. The sear on the foie was perfect. My entree was chicken carbonara, which was so creamy and delicious. It didn't have either pancetta or bacon, which are usually in carbonara, but it didn't need it. I know some would say "No bacon?!? Couldn't have beeen good!" But not everything needs bacon. I honestly did not miss it. There were sundried tomatoes, capers, cippolini onions and peas as well as chicken, all over penne pasta. I brought home enough for two lunches.

Saturday morning, we made our first run of the season to the town drop off center. We want to get the two empty rooms upstairs finished, but we've stuffed so much junk into them, it's impossible. Well, the one room isn't empty. Steph is using it, but she's hemmed in by extra furniture and a couple old mattresses. So we started with the smaller room, since that will eventually be a guest room. Once that is cleaned out and finished, she can move in there (and get her stuff out of storage). Then we can work on the bigger room, which will become the office area, and all the computers and such will move up there.

We also looked at the yard, and planned some big work out there. We are going to expand the deck and screen it in, so we can actually sit out there without getting eaten by mosquitoes. And put up bamboo fencing to keep the chickens corralled. The bamboo will just look so much nicer than most fencing, I think. It will also give me a nice spot on the outside of the fence (where chickens cannot get to it) for an herb garden.

I have gotten some reading done, and will have a review up next week. Promise!

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