Archive for July, 2009
- We just finished up almost two full weeks of vacation, and let me be honest with you, we’re pretty good at vacationing. If only we could figure out how to do it full time…
- We started things off with a child-(and dog) free few days up in Portland. It was a city we’ve been meaning to get to for a while, and it didn’t disappoint. Lots of great food, cool city, excellent beer, and luckily, sun. We stayed at the West End Inn, a very nice B&B. Now I’m not sure if we’re really “B&B people” (i.e. forced socializing, no choice what to eat for breakfast, actually having to get up in time for breakfast, etc.), but we had a good time and the place was great. Unfortunately, we made the wrong decision and should have stayed at the other inn we had considered, because Martha Stewart was staying there at the same time. That would be an interesting breakfast companion. Oh well. Her loss.
- Within minutes of arriving in Portland, we made our first stop at Duckfat. Oh how I wish this was closer to us. Nice panini, salads, and killer Belgian-style frites fried in, you guessed it, duckfat. Awesome. On second thought, maybe it’s better that it’s not too close.
- If you like beer, and yes, we do, then a stop at the Allagash brewery is well worth your while. They do daily tours and free tastings. You know that the beer is handmade when you see a bunch of guys sitting around, putting cherries, one at a time, into wooden barrels of beer.
- Our first dinner out was at Hugo’s. While the food was pretty fantastic (there was pork belly involved, so that’s always a plus), our stick-up-her-ass server sullied the experience a bit. Or at least gave us a good story to tell. The menu is broken up into different categories, which aren’t entirely straightforward. It also claims that all dishes are the same size, which is completely untrue, and suggests that people order three courses apiece. It was obvious that the entrees were in no way the same size as the early courses, and as the Lovely Suse and I always share everything that we order, we ended up ordering a total of five dishes. We have pretty small appetites in general, so we weren’t worried about leaving hungry. But when the server took our order, she repeatedly requested that the Lovely Suse order a “mid-course”. She got all huffy when we declined, and then when repeating back our order, she went course by course. And when she got to the mid-course, she said mine, and then looked at the Lovely Suse and said “And you’ll have nothing” with a sneer on her face. We both just started laughing. We’re in Maine for crissakes. You’re lucky I was even wearing pants. Chill out. That being said, even without her precious midcourse (I gallantly shared mine), we ate well and had plenty to eat.
- The next night we hit 555, and had a much friendlier experience. One thing to note is that both places served amazing biscuits with fantastic soft herb butter. I hope that this is a new trend, because I could eat about 50 of these and call it a night. If you do need more, I highly recommend the mussels, which multiple people suggested that we order. They were right to do so. I might say that these were the best mussels I’ve ever had, with pickled cherry peppers, chive butter, oh, and did I mention more butter. Yeah, these things were super-rich, and yes, they gave you a spoon to eat the rest of the buttery broth in the bottom of the bowl, and yes, I used said spoon. After that, we were almost too stuffed to eat much of our entrees, but that’s the price you pay.
- Since we were in the neighborhood, we had to grab lobster rolls at Harraseeket Lunch and Lobster. Seriously, if a place in Maine screws up a lobster roll, they need to leave the state. Lobster, mayo, celery, toasted bun, stop. These were nice.
- We were in a JCrew store and one of the sales associates was dressed exactly the same as the Lovely Suse. I really wanted to take a picture, but I think she was sort of pissed because she didn’t look as good as the Lovely Suse. That’s a losing battle, honey.
- I broke yet another pair of $15 sunglasses, so I decided to decrease my spending limit to $10. I managed to pick up 2 pairs, one a pair of aviators for $5.80. They actually look pretty decent, and I think that they’ve grown on me. Never figured me an aviators guy, but I’ll go with it. With my vacation beard going, I almost looked like some one famous or something.
- The second leg of our vacation was our annual trip to Nantucket. She graced us with 3 days of sunny weather (minus the rain storm that we got caught in one day), beaches, beers, and fun. As an added bonus, the friends who we stay with gave us one of their cars to use, which was excellent. We took full advantage of that freedom, which made everyone a happy camper.
- One of our consistently favorite spots to hit is the Cisco Brewery. What used to be a little shack with a couple of bar stools has turned into a full-on party zone with 3 different bars, live music, and hot dogs. Loads of parents with kids make it a family-friendly spot (not to mention all of the dogs roaming around), and the Lovely Tess had so much fun there. It was like the music just got down into her soul and she couldn’t stop dancing. I happily volunteered to be her dance partner.
- The Lovely Tess sure is growing up fast. Some choice nuggets out of her mouth while on Nantucket: “I want coffee!”, “I want a beer!”, and our favorite “I want money!”. Don’t we all?
- Our favorite local (a minute from our house) farm has gotten even better. Sergi Farms, home to the greatest corn in the history of the world, now has chickens! The Lovely Tess couldn’t get enough of them, and when we finally left to go buy veggies, she demanded “I want to see cows!”. Maybe next year?
- My MacBook has been having a few minor design issues lately and the edge of the keyboard was starting crack. I made an appointment at my local Genius Bar, showed them the problem, and within 45 minutes, I had a new case, keyboard, and trackpad, all done for free (thanks to my AppleCare protection). Just amazing service all around.
- I think that we’re pretty lucky in the sense that the Lovely Tess is open to trying new foods and is a great eater. But she continues to surprise us when we loves things that even we’re reluctant to give her. Case in point, the spicy squid salad at Dok Bua, which consists of barely cooked squid, tomatoes, celery, lettuce, lime, thai herbs and a whole lot of spice that is a bit challenging to the most adventurous eaters. She insisted that we give her some and she loved and kept asking for me. Um, ok. Apparently, toddlers aren’t affected by spice like we are?
- One of our dogwalkers was on Jeopardy! last week and won gobs and gobs of money. Seriously. She’s smart. I wonder if George helped her with flashcards or something?
- Honestly, was anyone surprised to hear that Michael Jackson died? Did anyone say “He was such a normal healthy looking guy, I can’t believe that there was any sort of medical shenanigans going on with him.”? It’s sort of sad and weird, and yes, I have many memories from my childhood about him, but I can’t wait to find out about all of the stuff that you know will come out now.
- As the most challenging of my school classes comes to an end, it looks like I’ll finally get a chance to breathe now. Man, that wasn’t fun.
- Had our first (and most likely last) soft-shelled crabs of the season on the 4th. Man, them’s things is tasty. Also on the weekend menu: ribs.
- We bought a small slide from some one on Craigslist for $10 that made the Lovely Tess the happiest girl around. There’s no better way to change the attitude of a girl who just woke up from her nap than with a $10 piece of plastic.
- I washed and vacuumed my car yesterday, which was loooooong overdue. This girl has just trashed it over the past couple of months with stickers, balls, books, cups, blankets, and more crackers and cheerios than you can imagine. George tried to help me clean it over the weekend by trying to eat every bit of food that was stuck under the seats. Unfortunately, he puked it all up after about 2 minutes. Well, at least it was all in one spot now.
- I didn’t even bother trying to stay awake for the fireworks this year. Once they started tailoring it to the national broadcast, it lost a little something. Maybe it’s all of those country songs they play now. They need to fix it up a bit to keep it interesting. Like maybe have some kids shooting bottle rockets at each other or something.
- The only thing better than a nicely mowed lawn is to have some one else do it for you. Same goes for a clean bathroom.
- When I was writing a check last week, I started writing 199… for the year. Seriously, it’s been 10 years and I still haven’t figured it out?
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- Greatest bribery of all time. The full first season of Yo Gabba Gabba on my iPhone. You can get the Lovely Tess to do anything with that at your disposal. She turns into one of those human statues that you sometimes see in Harvard Square.
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