06.30.09
Yes, the 6th level of hell IS the hottest level.
I know, I know, I know, I’m a TERRIBLE blogger. I know this. This blog started because after I moved to Atlanta I was writing long mass emails to all my friends, and it occurred to me that maybe they don’t want to get long mass emails. Especially since none of them wrote me back. So I started the blog so that my friends who want to keep up with me could do so without me having to infiltrate their inbox unnecessarily. I hope that’s still the case, but you never know. So this is the reason why my blog is so boring, it’s not meant to be all that entertaining. And for that reason, yeah, sometimes I miss a day or three here and there. If you’re really anxious for news, send me an email! (No, I don’t post my email on purpose because I get enough email. If you are a friend who reads this, you already have my email address. And if not, just ask me.)
Anyway. It was the 6th level of hell AGAIN this weekend. It was so hot that you actually have to not do things because it might be dangerous. This is a foreign concept to northerners. You might not do things when it’s too cold out, but not when it’s too hot. Friday night most of the Commune went to Holy Taco to say goodbye to one another before we went on our various vacations. The Canadians were off to (you guessed it) Canada the next day. I have to say, I just love Holy Taco more and more these days. The food is consistently good and they’re very welcoming. Saturday morning I didn’t manage to get out the door for my run until 9:00 am, at which point it was already way too hot. But I went anyway and managed 5 miles. I had planned for more like 8, but that plan went out the window somewhere between mile 3 and wanting to die. Then Dice and I went shopping for various things and stopped at Eats for lunch for the first time in months. What a treat Eats is, it’s so cheap and yet so delicious. Later Ray showed up and she and I selflessly kept the Canadians’ deck company in their absence by sitting on it and sharing a bottle of champagne in honor of her birthday. Yeah, drinking champagne outside when it’s 100 degrees out really isn’t the best idea, but we made the most of it. Later that evening we went to Osteria for dinner and then to Vino Libro for drinks. By the time we got to Vino Libro is was raining, but we scored one of the tables outside that have couches around them, so we got to lounge on the couches and yet still sit outside and watch the rain. So luxurious!
Sunday we went to the Australian Bakery for brunch. I am an early riser so I almost always have a bowl of cereal in the morning, which means that by the time people are ready for brunch, I’m ready for lunch. So I decided to get their burger for the first time, and it was interesting. It tasted like a burger you’d make a home and slap on the grill. Which I think is good, considering we don’t even OWN a grill let alone do any cooking on one. And the roll they use is phenomenal. And their fries were incredibly good. After brunch Dice dropped us off at Turner Field for the Red Sox game. Luckily our seats were out of the sun because otherwise I’m not sure I would have been able to stay for more than an hour, let alone the whole game. As it was, we had perfectly shaded seats and a bucket of Diet Coke to see us through, and we had a pretty damn good time. Not much beats an afternoon at the ballpark. Except for the fact that my poor beloved Red Sox lost, which is incredibly frustrating considering it’s probably the only Red Sox game I’ll get to see live all year. Boo!
After the game Ray went home to Mac-town and I tried to cool off at home for a while before Dice and I went to the Glenwood for dinner. I had the tri-colored tortellini with primavera in pesto sauce, and it was very good. The tortellini are pretty big, and satisfyingly creamy inside. After I ate it I realized that I’d had pasta for almost every meal over the weekend with the exception of the burger at Aussie Bakery. Good times!
Yesterday was a crazy day at work, capped by the fact that we had to leave early to get to the post office before it closed. The latest post office open is the Decatur branch, so we hightailed it over there before they shut the doors. After that, well, what do you do except go to the Brick Store, right? Right! Nothing beats the Monday blues like a bonus trip to the Brick Store. Workout? What workout? Heh.
06.26.09
We’ve reached the 6th layer of hell.
It’s hot out there. I mean, it’s not just that it’s hot, it’s that it doesn’t cool down all that much in the evening. Until the sun goes down. We experienced a lovely cooling off period at the beginning of this week when it didn’t get much above 90, but it’s almost 100 today. Also, as I was watching the weather forecast at the gym earlier today the weather lady said something about how it’s wicked hot today and to make matters worse, the humidity is such that it won’t cool down this evening at ALL. So basically there’s, like, no reason to ever take a shower, because you’ll just sweat it up the minute the cool water’s turned off. Then again, those 10 minutes under the cool spray do feel pretty nice.
Last night I was late to the gym, and rather than make Dice stay extra long I cut my workout short and went running outside after we got home. By the time I left the house it was about 8:00 pm and I think the weather was perfect, personally. A lot of dog-walkers out there looked really uncomfortable, but I was fine. Really sweaty, but otherwise fine. I’m thinking it was about 85 at that point. I’ll always take 85 over 45, any damn day of the week. 45 is painful, yo. 85 is just a great excuse to run slower.
Dice and I are back on our $200 per week budget for eating out. I know it sounds like a lot, but eating out is something we love to do and, unfortunately, have very little self-control over. So a budget is kind of necessary to keep our spending under control. This week we’ve done pretty well so far: we’ve only spent $55, which leaves us a whopping $145 for the weekend. It’s not a lot, but it’s enough. Will report back on Monday!
06.25.09
Catching up from last week isn’t really all that hard to do, as it turns out.
Okay, I’m back! No thanks to Paulie. Heh. Not that there’s much to talk about, I did stuff this weekend but it was mostly drinking and lying on the couch. Friday night I went to the Glenwood by myself, sat at the bar and read my book and had a very tasty dish of tortellini in a garlic butter sauce. Then I went home and cleaned the house because really, what else does one do on a Friday night, right? Saturday I went running and then shopping. The most exciting thing that happened over the weekend was that Dice was supposed to land on Saturday night around 9:00 pm, but his flight was cancelled and he ended up getting another one the next morning. So instead of picking him up the Commune all went to a neighborhood party in the evening, and then to Holy Taco for a late dinner. Sunday morning I picked up Dice from the airport around 8:30 and then we spent most of the day relaxing until we went to F1 at P’Cheen in the afternoon. We had just enough time after the race ended to get to M&K’s for dinner. They made a low country boil which was pretty tasty and we had a good time hanging out.
Fitness-wise this week has been inexcusably lame. I took Sunday and Monday off, Tuesday was fine, I did weights and ran 5 miles, last night I got really bad cramps while running on the treadmill and had to cut it short. I know that some weeks just are off weeks, but I feel like this shouldn’t be one of those weeks. I will have to step it up today through Saturday in order to make up for my own lame-osity.
Last night we went to cheese dip for the first time in months. We haven’t been going because we have limited funds to spend going out, so we end up saving them for when we’re going out with friends. And our friends don’t really want to go to cheese dip anymore Although they’ve revamped the menu quite a bit, the major problem is that their cheese dip is awful now. It tastes like they put some sort of thickening agent in it, like flour or cornstarch. It’s actually too thick and it sits in your stomach like a rock. Plus I always end up drinking margaritas there which are loaded with calories, whereas at other Mexican places I will drink wine or beer. So I think cheese dip, alas, is going out of our rotation for a while. It’s sad, but since they’ve changed so many things, and not in a good way, it doesn’t feel like the old place anymore.
Can’t believe it’s Thursday already! I’ve been so busy at work that the week is flying by.
06.24.09
This is not really a blog post.
Sorry, folks. Have had no time or desire to update the blog lately. More soon!
06.19.09
Good week. Glad it’s over!
Hmph. I don’t know that I can be bothered to write a blog post today. I’m feeling lethargic, which I’m sure has to do with the continuing heat wave. It’s supposed to be 100 today with accompanying miserable humidity.
I would say I’ve had a pretty good week! The only downside to it was that I aged a year older. That part sucked, but the debauchery that heralded said aging was certainly fun! Last night after I got home from the gym and showered I took myself over to Solstice where I sat at the bar and read my book. That’s one of my favorite solo activities, although last night I wasn’t really feeling it. But I thought I should really get it in while Dice is gone. I had their Solstice salad which is composed of field greens, diced apples, strawberries and walnuts. Really tasty and summery. Then I had the chicken egg rolls, which I’ve had before and which I like because they’re actually pretty light. They’re not super greasy and their innards are chopped chicken and beans and rice. It hit the spot. I had two glasses of wine, both of which were lukewarm because I noticed the bartendress would bring out the bottle to pour a glass and then forget to put the bottle back in for, like, 10 minutes or longer. The first glass I had was pretty warm, so I switched to a different type hoping that that bottle maybe had been in the cooler longer. No such luck. I’m very sensitive to beverage temperatures, you know. I like all beverages to be either ice cold or boiling hot. I’m not too proud to put ice in my wine, folks. I have no shame. But I didn’t last night, I just drank it and went home like a good girl.
I have been kicking ASS in the gym this week, too! My speed is demonstrably faster, and my energy level is higher. Every single day I’ve been averaging 9:10 per mile, or faster, the entire run. Last night I did speed word and averaged at 9:00! I know that’s not going to break any records, but for me, that’s insanely fast. During my best fitness levels I never ran faster than 9:15 on an on-going basis. I just hope this keeps up. Tomorrow I’m planning to run early before the inferno kicks in, and hopefully get in some distance, since that’s the next aspect to work on.
06.18.09
Two places that never fail to deliver. Except they don’t do delivery.
The Commune took me out to dinner last night for my birthday. We went to the Shed for their $3 slider night. The Shed has added several new sliders to the menu, and the weekly slider event is pretty popular ’round these here parts. I was ready to eat, so I ordered five different sliders: the barbacoa (delicious!), the pork schnitzel (addition of pear compote really added complexity to the sandwich, still my favorite), the chorizo with caramelized onions (a solid choice), the chicken salad (one of the best chicken salads I’ve ever tasted, mostly because it has bacon in it, heh), and the pork belly BLT (this particular one was all fat, which is the risk you take when ordering pork belly; considering every single other one I’ve ordered has been perfect, I’m not upset). Truthfully, I was so full by the time I got to the pork belly slider that I couldn’t have finished it anyway. Someone must have told our wait person that it was my birthday because they brought out a free dessert with a candle in it! Yay! It was the homemade ding dong, which is basically two layers of cake with a thick layer of sweet cream in the middle, covered in chocolate. It was very good, not too sweet, and actually very light, but I was much too full to eat more than half of it, which is too bad because ordinarily I would’ve done it justice. I guess if I’d known it was coming I would have foregone one of the sliders. Oh well! The Shed really did us right, as they always do. Really like that place!
It’s a MILLION degrees here with a MILLION percent humidity. Really. Last night it was 91 degrees but the humidity brought it up over 100. We walked to and from the Shed, and the heat on the way home, along with the mountain of food I’d eaten, made me feel sick to my stomach. So I went home and laid flat on the couch and watched chick flicks until bedtime. I miss Dice, but it’s certainly nice to lay there and watch chick flicks on a weeknight.
Today I went to Watershed with a colleague for lunch. As many know, Watershed is a restaurant in Decatur half owned by one of the Indigo Girls. Scott Peacock is the chef and he does Southern food magnificently. Today I had the famous pork and fig sandwich with horseradish and boursin-esqe cheese. I’ve had it many times before and it never disappoints!
06.17.09
Except I won’t be all that pretty after this gastro week is done.
I had a wonderful birthday yesterday! Really lovely. Perhaps it was because when your birthday’s on a Tuesday you have lowered expectations, but I thought it was pretty much perfect. I got over 50 birthday greetings from people on Facebook which really made me feel appreciated, plus the myriad emails, texts, phone calls and flower/chocolate deliveries. And then my co-workers baked brownies and cookies for me and had a little party at work. I feel loved!
I left work early to go to the gym, but I was later than I had planned for so I didn’t really have time to workout much. Which is fine, I mean, I could have skipped the gym entirely if I’d wanted to. But I didn’t want to feel guilty on my birthday so I went. And then we got home in plenty of time for me to get ready for dinner. Our reservations were at 7:30 but I wanted to get there at 7:00 and have a drink at the bar. We walked in the door precisely at 7:00 and sat at the bar (although we could have gone straight to our table, the place was far from full). Our bartender gave excellent advice on wine and let me taste a couple. I settled on the Gavi, which is fast becoming a favorite of mine. I drink that at Fritti as well (not surprising since they’re connected). We had a nice drink and a chat, and then we went to our table precisely at 7:30. This pleases me because you know I like to be punctual.
We started with the steamed clams in a white wine sauce with garlic, tomatoes, mint and Calabrese peppers. The sauce was perfect, flavored delicately and not over-powering. The clams were small but tasty. Dice really loved the sauce. Then I had the old standby, the insalata mista, which is your basic romaine salad with onions, tomatoes and cucumbers. Then I had tagliatelle in a carbonara, with peas, cream and cotto ham. The pasta was cooked perfectly and the cream was delicious! Dice had the risotto al frutti di mare which is risotto with mixed seafood. I tasted the risotto, and although it was good, my dish was better. However he said that the mussels were very good. It seems that Sotto Sotto does shellfish very well. After I cleaned my plate off and they cleared the table, I kept waiting for the dessert menu, because I deserve cake on my birthday, right? Then the waiter came out with a slice of cake with a candle in it! I haven’t blown out a candle in years! So much fun, and such a nice surprise!
Then we went home where I opened presents. Nothing special, but very nice gifts. Dice got me paperback versions of two books which I’ve already read at the library but could not find paperbacks of because they were too obscure 19th century British novels by a really obscure writer. Since Dice is a rare book librarian trained to find such things, he managed to find the only used paperback edition of Self-Control by Mary Brunton, and one of the few used paperback editions of Discipline by the same author. Both are fantastic books, and I only just finished Self-Control a few weeks ago and was wishing I could re-read the other. And now I can! Perfect, very thoughtful, gifts. The kind of gift that proves the giver was really listening when you said you wanted something.
Dice is off today to Charlottesville for a few days, so we had to get up early to get him to the airport this morning. Tonight the Commune is taking me out for my birthday. We’re going to the $3 slider night at The Shed, which I’m excited about because they’ve added several new sliders for our delectation. I’ll be sure to report tomorrow.
In fitness news, I had the MOST EXCELLENT run yesterday, although it was a short one. After weeks and weeks of struggling with my speed I maintained at 8:50 for two miles, and could have done many more miles, but I ran out of time. I haven’t had that kind of runner’s high since I ran my last half marathon! Today I did 5 miles at 9:15, which is still really good and, actually, totally acceptable to me. This makes me SO happy. For some reason I just snapped out of my running funk, that’s the only way I can explain it! Or, I guess it could possibly be all the cake, cookies and pasta I’ve eaten in the last 24 hours. Heh.
06.16.09
It’s a good thing I get prettier every year.
Yesterday was the only day in the Birthday Week of Gastro-Debauchery during which I didn’t go out to eat for either lunch or dinner, or both. In fact, I ate only non-processed foods, mostly raw veggies, the whole day. Which is my pathetic attempt to cram healthy foods down my throat to compensate for all the crap I’m going to eat the rest of the week. Yummy, delicious crap.
So, since today is my thirty-fourth birthday, I went to Taqueria with my Paypal for lunch as a treat. And, wonder of wonders: we did NOT get cheese dip! It’s really hot today and very humid, and the thought of eating hot cheese dip was unappetizing, so we went for the salsa trio instead. Very refreshing. Then I had a Memphis taco and a fried chicken taco. The fried chicken taco was, well, not bad, but also not nearly as good as it usually is. It was a big slab o’ fried chicken, badly fried. Usually it’s smaller, well-fried pieces in the taco. That was disappointing, but the Memphis taco totally made up for it.
Returning to the office, I found not one, but two deliveries of flowers on my desk! What a nice surprise! One was from Ray, of course, and the other from my parents. (Don’t worry, Dice sends me flowers at work all the time.) And then my office threw a little party for me with homemade brownies and cookies! The brownies were perfectly gooey and chocolatey. And I even get to take them home.
Tonight Dice and I are going to Sotto Sotto* for dinner. Originally I had planned to go to La Grotta, but in the end I decided I didn’t want to drive all the way up there and would prefer to stay closer to home. We almost never go to Sotto Sotto even though I think their food is to die for, because it’s just a little bit higher of a price point than we’re willing to throw down on a regular basis. So it’s still a special meal for me, and let’s not forget that their pasta is really to die for, and they have a wine list that’s fantastic. Expect a full report tomorrow!
*I shouldn’t have to apologize for a restaurant’s website, but I often feel like I should. Folks, this particular website is all Flash and really annoying. If it were up to me, Flash would be eradicated from the web building pantheon, but barring my total domination, I’m afraid we’ll have to deal with hideously amateurish restaurant websites for now. Why is it always restaurants that have the worst websites?
06.15.09
The Birthday Week of Gastro-Debauchery begins.
Here begins the Birthday Week of Gastro-Debauchery! It actually began with aplomb on Friday night when Dice, Ray and I went to Fritti for dinner. You just can’t go wrong at that place, and it continues to be one of my top two favorite places in Atlanta for it’s combination of comfortable atmosphere, reasonable price and fantastic food. I had the Bianca with salame and it was really damn good. Dice got the calamari appetizer which we haven’t tried there before and it was light and not rubbery at all. The batter was lighter, more like tempura, which was nice. After dinner we stopped in to the Glenwood where they treated us like royalty. Both owners and the manager stopped by our table and sat for a chat, and they even got us free shots. Good people.
Which means that Saturday I mostly wanted to die, pretty much more than I wanted to do anything else. Unfortunately that wasn’t on the agenda. Ray was having some tire trouble so we had to go about trying to get new tires put on her car before the tire shops closed for the day, assuming most of them close around noon on Saturdays. Once we got that sorted out we grabbed Dice and went to the Wheelbarrow Festival in Reynoldstown. Which took us all of 15 minutes because it was miniscule. But I’m sure it was good for the neighborhood. After that we went over to Brewhouse in L5P where we sat on the patio and enjoyed a leisurely lunch in the beautiful weather. Usually the food is good there but this time it was disappointing. Obviously, all I wanted to eat was grease, so I ordered chicken fingers and tater tots. The tots were sufficiently greasy but the chicken was undercooked so I only ate one of them. It was good because I didn’t eat too much, but honestly, undercooked chicken fingers are pretty unforgivable. I didn’t tell the wait person because I really didn’t want to talk to anyone, let alone complain about the food to the staff. Both Ray and Dice were happy with their meals, so that’s fine.
Saturday evening (after Ray drove off on her fancy new tires) we went to a housewarming party for some friends who recently moved into our neighborhood. They’re nice people and we’re glad they’re our new neighbors. The party was fun, especially since all the dudes there were car guys, so Dice was in absolute heaven. I didn’t even see him the entire time because he was out with all the dudes talking about cars. This is completely unlike his normal behavior and I was pleased to see it.
Sunday we mostly lounged in the morning, and in the afternoon went over to the Canadians’ for a neighborhood safety meeting, followed immediately by drinks at M&K’s house, which in turn was followed by dinner at Holy Taco. A pretty special ending to a pretty special weekend.
Today is the only day during this BWoGD when I’m not going out to eat for either lunch, dinner or both. So today’s focus is on healthy food and exercise. This is fine since I really need to detox just a little after the weekend. I’m sure I’ll be saying the same thing next Monday, except I’ll be detoxing from an entire week of gastro-debauchery. Can’t wait!
06.12.09
I’ve done my penance, now it’s time to play!
The end of this week snuck up on me. I mean, I knew it was coming, and I made plans for tonight and for the weekend, but all the while I kept thinking it was still several days away. And now here it is, Friday again. The main reason why I’m pleased is because I worked several short weeks in a row during May, and I was anticipating that it would be torture to work a full week (gosh, SUCH torture, right? heh), but it felt normal.
Weekend plans! Whee! Tonight Ray arrives on purpose to celebrate my upcoming Anniversary of the Birth. Since that day happens mid-week we’re celebrating tonight by going to Fritti. I’m already salivating at the thought of what I’m going to get. Especially since, except for fancy dinner Tuesday night, I’ve eaten nothing but raw vegetables all week in preparation for what’s probably going to be a full week of gastro-debauchery. Starting tonight! Tomorrow we’re hopefully going to the Wheelbarrow Festival in Reynoldstown, then in the evening we have a party hosted by some friends. Sunday I mostly plan to rest, but there’s also the possibility of hiking that morning. I will play it by ear.
The downside to eating raw vegetables all week is that my workouts have been less than stellar. And yet, I still struggle through like a trooper. Since I’ve been pretty lax on myself the past couple of months, I’m pleased that even though I’d rather not, I’ve been pushing myself to get better. The reason why my speed during running has gone down a FULL minute is because I just stopped if I felt like it, or only did 3 miles if I felt like it, or took a break every 10 minutes if I felt like it. So now I have to power through, work towards building a higher level of fitness again. It sucks, to tell the truth. It ain’t fun. But afterwards I always feel better.
NEWS FLASH: I’ve just purchased tickets to the Red Sox game later this month! Whee! Up until today the Braves, knowing, I suppose, that rabid Red Sox fans would cough up more money than others, were requiring people to purchase a 4-game combo package if you wanted to go to the Red Sox game. I guess they made their quota or whatever, because today they released the tickets for single-game purchases! YAY! I’m so excited. I get to watch a Red Sox game about once a month on TV, can’t wait to see it live! Special thanks to Ray who clued me into the release.
