Loosey is getting out of the house twice this weekend. Woo Hoo!
Tonight, X-man is headed over to the Champaign Tennis Center north of town to a play tennis, eat pizza and watch movies with the park district. Meanwhile, MacTroll and I are going to go to dinner somewhere and then to Target. Isn't that exciting? The Night Out at the Tennis Center is only from 6-9 p.m., so it's not quite long enough to get in a movie, because most of the movies at the Beverly have a 7 p.m. start time.
Tomorrow, X-man is going to try a Y Night at the YMCA. There he's got the gym and the pool and games. He goes from 6:15-9:45 p.m. So, we're going to go see the Seven Psychopaths at the Savoy 16. MacTroll is also going to take him for a haircut because School Picture Day is on Oct. 23rd. And the boys are going to the Pirate Party at the Orpheum Saturday afternoon.
Oh, and just a hint... if you're on a Roll-a-bout scooter, you should go slow at Schnuck's. Otherwise the workers there think you're some kind of insane 36-year-old adult on an actual toy scooter. It's not until they see the big immobile boot on your leg that they take the stern "I-can't-believe-I-have-to-lecture-you" look off of their faces and turn it into a "Oooohhhh!"
To be fair, I look like an old woman trying to make it across parking lots and up onto curbs. The bumpy things for the vision impaired don't go well with the wimpy wheels on the Roll-a-bout. I swear, they need some cross country wheels for this thing for the places I take it. I can't imagine many people in the world have all hard floors in their homes. And any folks still living with shag... well, the Roll-a-bout would be difficult. But at the grocery store and a mall and an office building, it really does increase your mobility.
Showing posts with label date night. Show all posts
Showing posts with label date night. Show all posts
Friday, October 19, 2012
Friday, June 3, 2011
How It's Gonna Be
My house is a mess. Like shit is everywhere. It was clean as a whistle on Tuesday, but that seems so far away. I used to have an hour in my day after work where I could clean things up before X-man came home from school. But now he's always here. And most of the time, he's pretty good about picking up when I'm around, but when MacTroll is around, it's like the world is ruled by a different cosmic king and -- all clean up goes to hell.
Meh. Whatever, right? It's just going to get dirty again. The reason I hate housework isn't that it's a challenge. It's the monotony. I've cleaned up everything: Blood, vomit, paint, shreds of paper, bubbles, urine, poop, toys, salsa, wine, etc. It's always something. So I lose interest. Pristine is apparently not in my abilities any more. And I'm okay with that.
I'm also realizing that I'm not a person who really lives in my house. I use it more for storage and sleeping. The rest of the time I'm just tossing stuff into the holding cell so we can run out the door somewhere else.
For example today, after MacTroll got some bloodwork done and I went to physical therapy, we ate lunch and took X-man to Decatur to go to the Children's Museum of Illinois. We have a Super Family Membership at the Orpheum that gets us into over 120 Children's museums around the country, so we decided to put it to use. We hadn't been there since X-man was 2, so he didn't really remember it, i.e. it was all new to him. But, like usual, we spent over an hour of the two and a half hours that we were there in the grocery store/bank/post office area. :-)
We even ran into the folks at CAOS (Carle Auditory Oral School) who were on a field trip. Since it was balls hot outside and the museum was nice and cool, we decided we were very smart for staying inside. Afterwards, we took X-man down to Merchant Street to Del's Popcorn and bought him his favorite white chocolate covered pretzels and a blue slushie as a snack. Then we drove around/through Millikin (my alma mater) which took -- oooooohhhh a little over two minutes. The thing he liked most though was driving by all the factories, particularly ADM, and announcing, "What is that smell? It smells like poop." MacTroll told him it was where they produced different kinds of additives for foods. And right away, X-man figured out they were the kind of additives that drive mommy nuts. (Why, for example, does something called SOY sauce have wheat in it?)
Anyway, if you know the funk of Decatur, you understand why I found this entertaining.
We were home for 45 minutes to throw dinner at him before we dropped him off at Little Gym and MacTroll and I went out for date night. The first part was very successful. We ate at Escobar's which we hadn't done in a long, long time. Unlike other more "prime people watching" locations no one was there at 6:30. So we didn't have to wait for a table, the service was spot on and my shrimp and scallops were wonderful. Afterwards, we headed over to Urbana to drop in on the Coop expansion party for owners. We checked in and then scoped out the new space, but we didn't stay long enough to deal with the crowd. We weren't hungry, so we didn't need the free food or wine. And the music was a little loud, plus it was standing room only. So we went into the store to get jam and honey. I feel like a jerk for buying organic jam from Italy, but it's really good pomegranate raspberry. The honey, however, was local. I swear.
So we vacated the crowd to hit Espresso on Daniel St. on campus. And as you might expect, the place was EMPTY. It was awesome. We sat there for an hour sipping on our drinks and chatting about how we couldn't hear anything. Cars and bikes were infrequent and we were two of five people in the entire coffee shop. And this, is why I love to live here. I love that sometimes, I can sit on my back porch and hear NOTHING. It's not as quiet as it was when we first built our house, of course, but at the same time, in comparison to most urban areas, it's darn right peaceful.
I'm trying a slew of vegetarian recipes this week, so if you're a friend of mine on Facebook, I'll post the good ones there. :-)
Tomorrow is set aside for either garage sale time or farmer's market time with X-man and then some work for the Tolono Library District. I have my first meeting as the Secretary on Tuesday. I'm a bit nervous, but at the same time, excited about helping out. You know me... anything to get out of my cage, um, I mean house.
So the next time you drop by, please forgive the mess. It's a work in progress. And right now, I'm working outside of the home as much as I possibly can. :-)
Meh. Whatever, right? It's just going to get dirty again. The reason I hate housework isn't that it's a challenge. It's the monotony. I've cleaned up everything: Blood, vomit, paint, shreds of paper, bubbles, urine, poop, toys, salsa, wine, etc. It's always something. So I lose interest. Pristine is apparently not in my abilities any more. And I'm okay with that.
I'm also realizing that I'm not a person who really lives in my house. I use it more for storage and sleeping. The rest of the time I'm just tossing stuff into the holding cell so we can run out the door somewhere else.
For example today, after MacTroll got some bloodwork done and I went to physical therapy, we ate lunch and took X-man to Decatur to go to the Children's Museum of Illinois. We have a Super Family Membership at the Orpheum that gets us into over 120 Children's museums around the country, so we decided to put it to use. We hadn't been there since X-man was 2, so he didn't really remember it, i.e. it was all new to him. But, like usual, we spent over an hour of the two and a half hours that we were there in the grocery store/bank/post office area. :-)
We even ran into the folks at CAOS (Carle Auditory Oral School) who were on a field trip. Since it was balls hot outside and the museum was nice and cool, we decided we were very smart for staying inside. Afterwards, we took X-man down to Merchant Street to Del's Popcorn and bought him his favorite white chocolate covered pretzels and a blue slushie as a snack. Then we drove around/through Millikin (my alma mater) which took -- oooooohhhh a little over two minutes. The thing he liked most though was driving by all the factories, particularly ADM, and announcing, "What is that smell? It smells like poop." MacTroll told him it was where they produced different kinds of additives for foods. And right away, X-man figured out they were the kind of additives that drive mommy nuts. (Why, for example, does something called SOY sauce have wheat in it?)
Anyway, if you know the funk of Decatur, you understand why I found this entertaining.
We were home for 45 minutes to throw dinner at him before we dropped him off at Little Gym and MacTroll and I went out for date night. The first part was very successful. We ate at Escobar's which we hadn't done in a long, long time. Unlike other more "prime people watching" locations no one was there at 6:30. So we didn't have to wait for a table, the service was spot on and my shrimp and scallops were wonderful. Afterwards, we headed over to Urbana to drop in on the Coop expansion party for owners. We checked in and then scoped out the new space, but we didn't stay long enough to deal with the crowd. We weren't hungry, so we didn't need the free food or wine. And the music was a little loud, plus it was standing room only. So we went into the store to get jam and honey. I feel like a jerk for buying organic jam from Italy, but it's really good pomegranate raspberry. The honey, however, was local. I swear.
So we vacated the crowd to hit Espresso on Daniel St. on campus. And as you might expect, the place was EMPTY. It was awesome. We sat there for an hour sipping on our drinks and chatting about how we couldn't hear anything. Cars and bikes were infrequent and we were two of five people in the entire coffee shop. And this, is why I love to live here. I love that sometimes, I can sit on my back porch and hear NOTHING. It's not as quiet as it was when we first built our house, of course, but at the same time, in comparison to most urban areas, it's darn right peaceful.
I'm trying a slew of vegetarian recipes this week, so if you're a friend of mine on Facebook, I'll post the good ones there. :-)
Tomorrow is set aside for either garage sale time or farmer's market time with X-man and then some work for the Tolono Library District. I have my first meeting as the Secretary on Tuesday. I'm a bit nervous, but at the same time, excited about helping out. You know me... anything to get out of my cage, um, I mean house.
So the next time you drop by, please forgive the mess. It's a work in progress. And right now, I'm working outside of the home as much as I possibly can. :-)
Sunday, May 8, 2011
But It's New!
MacTroll and I had a subdued date night last night. I just couldn't get up the drive to go see Thor, so we decided we'd try Destihl, the new restaurant downtown. We walked in at 5:45 p.m. and the three women at the hostess desk looked at us like they were in trouble.
I indicated that we had two, and they looked down at their table board and replied, "I think we still have a couple of seats back in this area" to one another. It was strange, because to the right the tables were half empty. I figured they must have had a lot of reservations coming in at 6. Instead, we were taken into a very crowded bar area to the left where a large party of 20 had numerous tall tables pushed together. There was still plenty of actual seating at the bar, but we got a table for four in the back corner overlooking "the giant hole where that building used to be downtown."
I had looked at the menu before I left, so I knew there wasn't too much that I could eat. MacTroll ordered one of their beers, the large baked pretzel appetizer and then a pizza. I ordered a $4.95 strawberry and goat cheese salad minus the candied cashews with the dressing on the side. I knew for $4.95 the goat cheese was going to be minimal, and it was just three nickel-sized dabs.
Being that I eat spinach salad with fruit for one meal every day lately, I can't really tell you anything about the food. MacTroll was discouraged that the pretzels were obviously from a package and weren't baked by the restaurant. He was also discouraged by the two dipping sauces which sounded good on paper didn't really translate well in reality.
What I can tell you is that by 6:30 p.m. we noticed a family with an older child were totally eyeing our table because it was standing room only in the bar. Then, while we were waiting for our check a gentleman came over and asked if we could go and find him on the other side of the bar when we were ready to leave because he had a friend in a wheelchair that needed a lower table. I explained that I thought the family had been waiting a while and he'd need to go work it out with them... and seriously, dude, if you want a table in that crowd, get your ass over and stake one out like the family did. You have to do the work.
But as I'm signing the ticket, MacTroll is looking around the bar area shaking his head. "It was fine. But it's not that good. It's definitely not worth waiting in line for."
"But it's new!"
And Champaign doesn't get new downtown very often.
But there ya go. Nothing special. A brew pub. I think we prefer the Esquire.
I indicated that we had two, and they looked down at their table board and replied, "I think we still have a couple of seats back in this area" to one another. It was strange, because to the right the tables were half empty. I figured they must have had a lot of reservations coming in at 6. Instead, we were taken into a very crowded bar area to the left where a large party of 20 had numerous tall tables pushed together. There was still plenty of actual seating at the bar, but we got a table for four in the back corner overlooking "the giant hole where that building used to be downtown."
I had looked at the menu before I left, so I knew there wasn't too much that I could eat. MacTroll ordered one of their beers, the large baked pretzel appetizer and then a pizza. I ordered a $4.95 strawberry and goat cheese salad minus the candied cashews with the dressing on the side. I knew for $4.95 the goat cheese was going to be minimal, and it was just three nickel-sized dabs.
Being that I eat spinach salad with fruit for one meal every day lately, I can't really tell you anything about the food. MacTroll was discouraged that the pretzels were obviously from a package and weren't baked by the restaurant. He was also discouraged by the two dipping sauces which sounded good on paper didn't really translate well in reality.
What I can tell you is that by 6:30 p.m. we noticed a family with an older child were totally eyeing our table because it was standing room only in the bar. Then, while we were waiting for our check a gentleman came over and asked if we could go and find him on the other side of the bar when we were ready to leave because he had a friend in a wheelchair that needed a lower table. I explained that I thought the family had been waiting a while and he'd need to go work it out with them... and seriously, dude, if you want a table in that crowd, get your ass over and stake one out like the family did. You have to do the work.
But as I'm signing the ticket, MacTroll is looking around the bar area shaking his head. "It was fine. But it's not that good. It's definitely not worth waiting in line for."
"But it's new!"
And Champaign doesn't get new downtown very often.
But there ya go. Nothing special. A brew pub. I think we prefer the Esquire.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Christmas Date
MacTroll and I went out on a date tonight. It was pretty fantastic. I had to get a quick run in at the Rec Center beforehand. So while I showered and got ready, he ran X-man over to their Parent Date Night from 5:30-9:30 p.m. It was his first one and he loved it because he had several friends from the neighborhood and apparently from school who were also there. I liked that it was $15 for the whole 4 hours.
Meanwhile, MacTroll and I headed to Boltini for dinner. We have two $25 gift certificates that we purchased some time ago through cusavings.com. They don't expire, but they're also for food and non-alcoholic beverages only. We had some stuffed dates that weren't as fabulous as the ones over at V.Picasso (so sad they're closing on Dec. 12), but were still pretty yummy. Then I had the Ahi Tuna salad and MacTroll had a Butcher Block sandwich. I did indulge in one raspberry truffle martini after dinner. It's my favorite drink around town so far. But there's a strawberry blonde there I need to give a go one of these nights. We used one of the certificates and got out of there for $15, minus tip.
We spent a lot of time deciding where to go. We were too dressed up to go do something like -- bowling. But we were hours too early for anything that might be exciting that was happening around town. And the truth is, when you have kids, everything has to be planned. You can't just call people up and say, "Hey, meet us downtown for drinks" like you could in your twenties. Yes, I know that I just referred to a decade of time period -- which makes me officially old at 34.
Instead of wandering around in the sub-arctic wind (Boy, am I glad I wore leggings and a sweater dress), we went back to the car and went to the grocery store where we did something we hadn't done in a long time. We bought a box of brownie mix. The leaded Ghiradelli goodness... We baked brownies when we officially became a couple. We baked brownies after prom night at his parents. We baked brownies after I got pregnant. Truth be told, there hadn't been any brownie baking in a while. I suggested it. MacTroll got excited. So we added some Ben and Jerry's to the top.
After our brownies were in the oven, we kept baking. We tossed out a bad bunch of dough to make Gingerbread Dinosaurs from Cooking Light. (I have NEVER gotten a decent dough out of them and I'm a pretty proficient baker.) And then, we made the sugar cookie dough forms. We decorated one batch and left the other for X-man to do after we picked him up.
Tomorrow, we're supposed to head to Rockford to see my Dad. Except between here and there is an effing blizzard warning. Great. Fabulous. We were supposed to go out with neighbors tonight who we'd invited out two months ago, but their sitter canceled. So it was just us and X-man was already excited about the Rec Center, or I suppose we could have just packed up this afternoon and driven up there. Except, in a trend that is continuing, I get completely worn out around 2 p.m. and only make it through the day by taking a 1-2 hour nap.
So, we'll see if tomorrow's family Christmas with my dad and my sister happens.
Meanwhile, MacTroll and I headed to Boltini for dinner. We have two $25 gift certificates that we purchased some time ago through cusavings.com. They don't expire, but they're also for food and non-alcoholic beverages only. We had some stuffed dates that weren't as fabulous as the ones over at V.Picasso (so sad they're closing on Dec. 12), but were still pretty yummy. Then I had the Ahi Tuna salad and MacTroll had a Butcher Block sandwich. I did indulge in one raspberry truffle martini after dinner. It's my favorite drink around town so far. But there's a strawberry blonde there I need to give a go one of these nights. We used one of the certificates and got out of there for $15, minus tip.
We spent a lot of time deciding where to go. We were too dressed up to go do something like -- bowling. But we were hours too early for anything that might be exciting that was happening around town. And the truth is, when you have kids, everything has to be planned. You can't just call people up and say, "Hey, meet us downtown for drinks" like you could in your twenties. Yes, I know that I just referred to a decade of time period -- which makes me officially old at 34.
Instead of wandering around in the sub-arctic wind (Boy, am I glad I wore leggings and a sweater dress), we went back to the car and went to the grocery store where we did something we hadn't done in a long time. We bought a box of brownie mix. The leaded Ghiradelli goodness... We baked brownies when we officially became a couple. We baked brownies after prom night at his parents. We baked brownies after I got pregnant. Truth be told, there hadn't been any brownie baking in a while. I suggested it. MacTroll got excited. So we added some Ben and Jerry's to the top.
After our brownies were in the oven, we kept baking. We tossed out a bad bunch of dough to make Gingerbread Dinosaurs from Cooking Light. (I have NEVER gotten a decent dough out of them and I'm a pretty proficient baker.) And then, we made the sugar cookie dough forms. We decorated one batch and left the other for X-man to do after we picked him up.
Tomorrow, we're supposed to head to Rockford to see my Dad. Except between here and there is an effing blizzard warning. Great. Fabulous. We were supposed to go out with neighbors tonight who we'd invited out two months ago, but their sitter canceled. So it was just us and X-man was already excited about the Rec Center, or I suppose we could have just packed up this afternoon and driven up there. Except, in a trend that is continuing, I get completely worn out around 2 p.m. and only make it through the day by taking a 1-2 hour nap.
So, we'll see if tomorrow's family Christmas with my dad and my sister happens.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Dinner and a Movie
Yesterday, my oldest cat turned 13. So happy birthday, Mr. C!
The family spent the morning preparing for Papa's arrival. My dad was driving down from Rockford in the middle of campaign season to visit us and spend some time with X-man. When he got here we tried to go have lunch at Black Dog Ale, but they had a 20-minute wait, which doesn't work with a hungry 4 year old, so we went to Crane Alley instead.
I got a black bean burger and sweet potato fries. This was perhaps the wrong food choice because several hours later we went to a special dinner at Prairie Fruit Farm. The farm opens each spring with breakfasts every Saturday before the Urbana Farmers' Market opens. Then they do special dinners until the close of the growing season. Usually dinners are served outside on a wooden patio. But as it was 54 degrees when the sun started to fall away, we ate in the barn next to the kitchen. Each special dinner has a theme and is prepared by Alisa Demarco and her very friendly kitchen staff. The theme for our dinner was "100 yard dinner." That means nearly everything (outside of butter and oil) were prepared within 100 yards of the kitchen. As you can guess, since they make goat cheese, we ate a lot of it. You can see the complete menu here.
The appetizer course starts at 4 p.m. We arrived at 4:30 p.m. dressed in jeans, tennis shoes. I had a t-shirt, a wool sweater and a windbreaker on. MacTroll wore his boots and a pair of jeans with a long sleeve t-shirt, a fleece and he carried the top part of a gortex coat to break the wind. The wind was blowing brown leaves from the tree, and everything at the farm looked pretty picked over.
The farm served ice water and warm pear and apple cider, but MacTroll looked kind of disappointed that I didn't inform him we were welcome to bring our own beverages. In his old age, having wine with dinner is apparently something he looks forward to. I'm sure he does it when he dines out with folks on travel. But he and I get out usually only once a month, and I can count the number of alcoholic drinks I've had in the last calendar year on one hand. So, you know, the BYOB kind of escaped my attention.
There appeared to be two groups of people at the dinner. One was a theme of local business owners supporting other local businesses. The other was appeared to be very professorial/artsy. They apparently get a lot of repeat diners at their dinners because Wes, one of the owners, said in his welcome that he recognized and knew most everyone there. I think MacTroll and I looked like the odd ones out.
We sat with a large party of folks. They were very friendly. One was an artist who was there with her significant other who owns That's Rentertainment on campus. His mother was also present. She and I had some lovely discussion. On the other side, was a couple that worked at the Natural History Survey who know our neighbors Jeff and Wendy. And then another man who was there with his college-aged daughter worked for Yahoo and his wife runs a gift shop in Monticello. I engaged him in my surprise that Bee Active Toys, which originated in store space next to his wife's mad the move to Tuscola and apparently has done so well, they're opening a second store at Market Place Mall next to Macy's. I liked the store in Monticello and I followed them to Tuscola when they moved. Think Art Mart -- but with a wider selection, particularly for bigger kids.
There were LONG waits in between each course. And, unlike, when he eats at home, I sat there and watched MacTroll eat everything -- even the stew which was full of root vegetables. He even ate a fried green tomato. I inquired why he'd try everything here, but at home if I put chunks of tomato in anything he picks them off. He said he didn't know why. And I'm so taking that personally, because there's no other reasonable explanation.
It was the first time I'd had guinea hens. The breasts weren't anything exciting, even though they were stuffed with fruit. But I did enjoy the legs, which is funny because usually I'm not a dark meat fan. But they cooked them so well, that the meat fell off the bone. The meat was also much darker than typical chicken. Much more rich in flavor.
Our favorite course was the cheese course (big surprise). We got three small pieces of cheese made at the farm, a bit of jellied currant and a bit of honeycomb. In my old age, I'd rather have honey than chocolate of any kind. I can't explain it. It just happened since I started losing weight. And that honeycomb was amazing. There's something about goat cheese and honey or goat cheese and jam that just goes so well together. Put the honey and goat cheese together on some decent whole wheat bread with a bit of pear and toast it for a few minutes and it's a heavenly sandwich.
The dessert was my least favorite. The apples were much too tart, even though they were supposedly honeyed. It tasted like a sour yogurt with fruit at the bottom.
I'm trying to remember how much we paid for the dinners. I think it was $85 a person. Hence, this was MacTroll's birthday present (which isn't until Oct. 27th). But he enjoyed it, and it was something very different than the usual downtown trip.
Afterwards, we called Papa, who was still going strong with X-man, so we went to go see the Social Network. When I first heard this movie was coming out, I was a pass. And then -- I read that Aaron Sorkin did the screen play. This was only helped by the fact that Trent Reznor does the music and that it was produced by Kevin Spacey. Crap. Okay. If Aaron Sorkin wrote it the dialogue between characters will at least be fast moving and entertaining. If you don't know Aaron Sorkin, he wrote Sports Night, the West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. He also wrote the American President and A Few Good Men.
I knew what to expect from his work, and I did not leave disappointed. What was weird, was the fact that we went to a movie where the theater was full. That never happens for MacTroll and I. So the 19 year old who was behind us complaining about the "no texting at the movies" rule made me laugh. I don't give a shit about the rule. As long as there's not some beep or vibrate that's going off every 2 seconds next to me, whatever. But I found the rule entertaining given that we were sitting in a theater watching a movie which mentions more than once the addictiveness of social networking.
Indeed, it's sucked in the creator -- of course it made him billions of dollars, while it just sucks the life force out of the rest of us. :-)
The family spent the morning preparing for Papa's arrival. My dad was driving down from Rockford in the middle of campaign season to visit us and spend some time with X-man. When he got here we tried to go have lunch at Black Dog Ale, but they had a 20-minute wait, which doesn't work with a hungry 4 year old, so we went to Crane Alley instead.
I got a black bean burger and sweet potato fries. This was perhaps the wrong food choice because several hours later we went to a special dinner at Prairie Fruit Farm. The farm opens each spring with breakfasts every Saturday before the Urbana Farmers' Market opens. Then they do special dinners until the close of the growing season. Usually dinners are served outside on a wooden patio. But as it was 54 degrees when the sun started to fall away, we ate in the barn next to the kitchen. Each special dinner has a theme and is prepared by Alisa Demarco and her very friendly kitchen staff. The theme for our dinner was "100 yard dinner." That means nearly everything (outside of butter and oil) were prepared within 100 yards of the kitchen. As you can guess, since they make goat cheese, we ate a lot of it. You can see the complete menu here.
The appetizer course starts at 4 p.m. We arrived at 4:30 p.m. dressed in jeans, tennis shoes. I had a t-shirt, a wool sweater and a windbreaker on. MacTroll wore his boots and a pair of jeans with a long sleeve t-shirt, a fleece and he carried the top part of a gortex coat to break the wind. The wind was blowing brown leaves from the tree, and everything at the farm looked pretty picked over.
The farm served ice water and warm pear and apple cider, but MacTroll looked kind of disappointed that I didn't inform him we were welcome to bring our own beverages. In his old age, having wine with dinner is apparently something he looks forward to. I'm sure he does it when he dines out with folks on travel. But he and I get out usually only once a month, and I can count the number of alcoholic drinks I've had in the last calendar year on one hand. So, you know, the BYOB kind of escaped my attention.
There appeared to be two groups of people at the dinner. One was a theme of local business owners supporting other local businesses. The other was appeared to be very professorial/artsy. They apparently get a lot of repeat diners at their dinners because Wes, one of the owners, said in his welcome that he recognized and knew most everyone there. I think MacTroll and I looked like the odd ones out.
We sat with a large party of folks. They were very friendly. One was an artist who was there with her significant other who owns That's Rentertainment on campus. His mother was also present. She and I had some lovely discussion. On the other side, was a couple that worked at the Natural History Survey who know our neighbors Jeff and Wendy. And then another man who was there with his college-aged daughter worked for Yahoo and his wife runs a gift shop in Monticello. I engaged him in my surprise that Bee Active Toys, which originated in store space next to his wife's mad the move to Tuscola and apparently has done so well, they're opening a second store at Market Place Mall next to Macy's. I liked the store in Monticello and I followed them to Tuscola when they moved. Think Art Mart -- but with a wider selection, particularly for bigger kids.
There were LONG waits in between each course. And, unlike, when he eats at home, I sat there and watched MacTroll eat everything -- even the stew which was full of root vegetables. He even ate a fried green tomato. I inquired why he'd try everything here, but at home if I put chunks of tomato in anything he picks them off. He said he didn't know why. And I'm so taking that personally, because there's no other reasonable explanation.
It was the first time I'd had guinea hens. The breasts weren't anything exciting, even though they were stuffed with fruit. But I did enjoy the legs, which is funny because usually I'm not a dark meat fan. But they cooked them so well, that the meat fell off the bone. The meat was also much darker than typical chicken. Much more rich in flavor.
Our favorite course was the cheese course (big surprise). We got three small pieces of cheese made at the farm, a bit of jellied currant and a bit of honeycomb. In my old age, I'd rather have honey than chocolate of any kind. I can't explain it. It just happened since I started losing weight. And that honeycomb was amazing. There's something about goat cheese and honey or goat cheese and jam that just goes so well together. Put the honey and goat cheese together on some decent whole wheat bread with a bit of pear and toast it for a few minutes and it's a heavenly sandwich.
The dessert was my least favorite. The apples were much too tart, even though they were supposedly honeyed. It tasted like a sour yogurt with fruit at the bottom.
I'm trying to remember how much we paid for the dinners. I think it was $85 a person. Hence, this was MacTroll's birthday present (which isn't until Oct. 27th). But he enjoyed it, and it was something very different than the usual downtown trip.
Afterwards, we called Papa, who was still going strong with X-man, so we went to go see the Social Network. When I first heard this movie was coming out, I was a pass. And then -- I read that Aaron Sorkin did the screen play. This was only helped by the fact that Trent Reznor does the music and that it was produced by Kevin Spacey. Crap. Okay. If Aaron Sorkin wrote it the dialogue between characters will at least be fast moving and entertaining. If you don't know Aaron Sorkin, he wrote Sports Night, the West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. He also wrote the American President and A Few Good Men.
I knew what to expect from his work, and I did not leave disappointed. What was weird, was the fact that we went to a movie where the theater was full. That never happens for MacTroll and I. So the 19 year old who was behind us complaining about the "no texting at the movies" rule made me laugh. I don't give a shit about the rule. As long as there's not some beep or vibrate that's going off every 2 seconds next to me, whatever. But I found the rule entertaining given that we were sitting in a theater watching a movie which mentions more than once the addictiveness of social networking.
Indeed, it's sucked in the creator -- of course it made him billions of dollars, while it just sucks the life force out of the rest of us. :-)
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