I'm now 28. I took plenty of time off from blogging (not to mention
work), and now figure that I owe you folks (if you actually exist… I
wouldn't know, as nobody every leaves comments,) a little something in
recompense. First off, I'm really f-ing glad I didn't make a huge
deal out of my birthday this year. Last year's hour of awkward
conversation with Dungeon Master (the only person other than Orpheus
to show up near on-time,) was a little much… As was having to hear O.
complain re: my friend who is also a Leo and was kinda
mean/opinionated/leonine in a conversation they had about sexuality.
So, this year, I just dominated Orphheus' time over the course of a
four-day weekend.
I haven't felt like cooking for awhile, oddly… I think it has
something to do with just being off on the Coq au Vin last week, for
starters, and partially because I'm kind of stuck in a flavor rut
that's only beginning to break a touch. This weekend, most of what I
did was traditional breakfast fare, pan-fried and oven-finished
breakfast potatoes "importencias," as I made them all fancy-like with
fresh thyme and bay leaf, and the boiling liquid was chicken stock and
dry vermouth. Since I had bad bacon, I just cooked the lean with a
tiny portion of the fat in a spray of grapeseed oil, and used the
remnants thereof to sauté the shallots and green peppers for the eggs.
I then turned down the heat, put the finely chopped bacon back into
the skillet, and added the eggs. Fortunately there was raclette on
hand, so the eggs tasted like dying and going to heaven. Other than
that, we ate out a lot, and had a really fun time dressing up some
Tino's frozen burritos for dinner on Sunday, served with oven-fried
potato wedges. It was delightful!
On Monday, my birthday was capped off quite nicely. O. and I had a
beautiful doink in the morning, very experimental. I ended up doing
him on an exercise ball, which seemed to ignite a certain fire
heretofore unknown. Very interesting, to say the least! We went
downtown, and while Orpheus worked for a couple hours, I went to the
bar that lets you drink tap beers free all day/night on your birthday,
in your own personal 8-oz. birthday stein. It was fun, as I struck up
a neat mid-day conversation with the house manager (a real hottie –
don't tell O., though, as it tends to upset him when I check out
girls). Later, when Orpheus was done with work, we got gussied up and
went to the New Pornographers' show, which was an awesome concert…
They're a second band project, so I was very surprised to see them
pull out quite a few reinterpretations of their old music. There
wasn't as much witty banter on stage this time around, and I literally
slept through most of their opening act, but they did their job… That
band's high-energy, low-skill flailings in skinny suits that they were
slightly too fat (and too old) for got everybody jazzed up, but hungry
for substance. The New Pornographers supplied.
Before the concert, as a side-note, O. and I had the most lovely
dinner at the Tornado Steak House, the restaurant attached to one of
our fav. bars, The Tornado Room. It was pretty quick, but I had a
beautiful petit fillet done medium-rare, accompanied by a neat little
Argentinean Malbec. There was no time for dessert, but it didn't
matter. The meal was simple and brilliant, and our lesbian waitress
was both perfectly professional (read – didn't look down at us because
we were dressed for a concert in an old hall with a bunch of fudging
hippie-sters), and a real laugh-riot. She also got that we had to be
quick, and was instrumental in fighting our orders to the top of the
queue in the kitchen. It was an excellent experience.
On Tuesday, I got up super-early, baked a quiche with broccoli, yellow
pepper, onion, shallot, gruyere, raclette and sharp cheddar, put
together the fundaments of a salad that we tossed on-site (prcciutto,
fresh mozz balls, figs, pistachios and baby arrugula with a balsamic
vinegar and olive oil dressing, and my roast pepper dip. We had
store-bought cookies for dessert, and the liquid accompaniment was a
beautiful French Rose (would you happen to have a grave laying
around?). The House on the Rock, which we experienced after eating
our picnic, has been slightly diminished by the decision to make it
more handicap accessible. One misses out on the winding, odd routings
through buildings more slap-dash storage than museum
presentation-quality. The most cruelly felt change was the new exit
from the world's largest carousel, which used to be a narrow staircase
that climbed around the side of the spinning monstrosity, then entered
a narrow, hot, dark, close hallway into which was carved a six-foot
rectangular window. Through this window, the steel-cable suspension
holding the carousel's canopy up could be seen, spinning slowly around
the central spindle, bathed in light from a heat vent in the side of
the wall. The pictures I took served as my desktop background for
some months last year, until I took better ones of some mercury glass
at the Milwaukee Museum of Art. You can see my favorite 2 above.
Yesterday was the day I actually meant to post this, but I lost all will to survive after work let out, and so I went to bed. I woke up around midnight, then went to sleep again around 12:30. I slept all night with earplugs in, then went to work... Tired. How does it always work out that way? I GOT ENOUGH SLEEP FOR ONCE!!! Sometimes, I just hate being human. Anyway, have a great evening. I promise I'll be writing more next week... And thank you for the comment, fellow blogger (you know who you are)!!! I'm glad to see that I am actually read. ;-)
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