So it was my Mom's 50th birthday yesterday, and to celebrate my Dad had a dinner for her at their favorite resturaunt, The Boathouse. http://www.boathouserestaurant.org/index.html
My parental units are adventurous eaters. I'm an avid Food Network fan, but I know in my heart i'm not really capable of being an Iron Chef judge, because some of the concoctions make me a little, well, nauseated. The first course was a French sorrel soup with scallop mousse and truffle oil: the flavors were lemony and earthy with a mix of sweet sea and cinnamon. They were extremely tasty and weird at the same time, but the texture of a scallop mousse was just downright odd.
The second course was absolutely gross, but I suppose that could be due to my aversion to brussel sprouts and anything sweet and protein miexd...it was a mushroom and egg concoction that looked sort of like a custard, sitting on top of mushrooms and baby brussel sprouts. They in turn sat on top of pears poached in a sweet sauce of cinnamon, nutmeg, maybe some allspice. I couldn't do it. Ish.
The third was unbelievable: spiced duck breast that was so perfect it melted in the mouth. Wow. Really, wow...food critic I am not becuase it was so overwhelmingly good "wow" is all that needs to be said.
The dessert was an apple walnut cake that was quite tasty and fall-inspired but not as mouth watering as the main course. I love that resturaunt: you can taste truly gourmet food, good wine, and discover your palate may not be as fancy pants as you'd hoped. I so need to take Dave there next time.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Thursday, November 01, 2007
News of the Duh
So there's a couple of potentially sensitive subjects that are irritating the crap out of me.
A college student in my state drank herself to death by accident on her 21st birthday this week. Tragic? Absolutely. Stupid? Yup...sorry bleeding hearts, but if she drank herself into alchohol poisioning when she was a NURSING STUDENT, it was stupid! College students regularly drink themselves into a stupor, into the hospital, even into their deaths: my issue here is that she not only made the front page of the major metro paper, her story was bigger than MAJOR world news, even major local news.
Did she make it to the front page because she was a young, pretty girl? Are there continuing updated stories about the police investigation becuase the double murder that happened last night isn't as interesting? Because the war in Iraq or the impending actions that could easily lead to a war in Iran aren't as important as a college girl who, in an act of irresponsible stupidity, killed herself? And why does a legal adult's actions leave her NOT responsible for her own death? Why does the legislature for our state think it's right to make laws forcing 21 year olds to wait until 8am on the day of their birthday to drink, when an 18 year old can be recruited to kill people and potentially die in the war? Maybe I'm harsh. Maybe anti-hazing and anti-drinking rules are the way to "protect" ADULTS from themselves. Yeah...they're called "kids" when they do something stupid that effects the rest of their lives, but they're adults for everything else. Ah, double standards.
The other major issue? My city has a referendum up this November to increase property taxes (in a housing market that's TANKING) to pay for the school system. A school system we have no intention of ever joining since we're not having children. AND our city recently built a whole new downtown area with cute, convenient shops. Oh, AND they just broke ground on a fancy-pants new Arts center. But there's no money for the schools, and I should have to pay an extra $100 every six months to fund other people's kids' education. Am I the only person who sees an issue with is, when the assessment of property taxes is supposed to be based on market value and the market values all over the country are swirling around the bowl?
A college student in my state drank herself to death by accident on her 21st birthday this week. Tragic? Absolutely. Stupid? Yup...sorry bleeding hearts, but if she drank herself into alchohol poisioning when she was a NURSING STUDENT, it was stupid! College students regularly drink themselves into a stupor, into the hospital, even into their deaths: my issue here is that she not only made the front page of the major metro paper, her story was bigger than MAJOR world news, even major local news.
Did she make it to the front page because she was a young, pretty girl? Are there continuing updated stories about the police investigation becuase the double murder that happened last night isn't as interesting? Because the war in Iraq or the impending actions that could easily lead to a war in Iran aren't as important as a college girl who, in an act of irresponsible stupidity, killed herself? And why does a legal adult's actions leave her NOT responsible for her own death? Why does the legislature for our state think it's right to make laws forcing 21 year olds to wait until 8am on the day of their birthday to drink, when an 18 year old can be recruited to kill people and potentially die in the war? Maybe I'm harsh. Maybe anti-hazing and anti-drinking rules are the way to "protect" ADULTS from themselves. Yeah...they're called "kids" when they do something stupid that effects the rest of their lives, but they're adults for everything else. Ah, double standards.
The other major issue? My city has a referendum up this November to increase property taxes (in a housing market that's TANKING) to pay for the school system. A school system we have no intention of ever joining since we're not having children. AND our city recently built a whole new downtown area with cute, convenient shops. Oh, AND they just broke ground on a fancy-pants new Arts center. But there's no money for the schools, and I should have to pay an extra $100 every six months to fund other people's kids' education. Am I the only person who sees an issue with is, when the assessment of property taxes is supposed to be based on market value and the market values all over the country are swirling around the bowl?
NaNoWriMo Begins!
Today is November 1st. National Novel Writing Month http://www.nanowrimo.org begins today!! 50,000 words in 30 days: if you have any interest in writing a novel check them out: it's a great way to give yourself permission to write like mad and put the internal editor in a box under your bed. Although I have one in progress (therefore ineligable for the contest) I'm using this month to kick start my lazy ass...because I haven't worked on either book since before Convergence in July. Yeah. It's been a while.
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