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Old Friends New Friends
For the first time last week I was invited to a social event by the people at the Agora media job. Denis and I get along with everyone there, and they are all part of the same circles, so we were invited to a smores party (which turned out to be a birthday party). Denis had to work, but I went over (good timing too since it rained a bit and I didn't want to bike all the way home). I stayed pretty quiet during the smores/mingling. Couldn't really participate in any of the D&D type conversations, but yet that felt oddly familiar.
Then we some more people arrived and I chatted, and then we went inside and played games which was great because you could get to know people while having something else to do. Denis even stayed for a card game after he came to pick me up. So although initially a bit stressful (meeting new people usually is) I now know a little bit of this group made up mostly of Williams alums/current students. They're fun, I even heard talk of skinny dipping in the river which confirmed that I was in the right place. We'll see if we're invited to any more social events, although I'm now on hugging terms with everyone at the office, so that's a good sign.
Friday I had some 50s housewife urges so I took the day off from work (I only wanted a couple hours off, but my boss urged me to take the day). I spent the morning doing immense amounts of laundry at the laundrymat (all the towels we own, two sets of sheets, plus clothes). Then went grocery shopping, then did go into Agora for a couple hours before Denis dropped me off at home.
I spent the evening cooking (made significantly more enjoyable by the bottle of white wine that I opened, it was for the recipes, really). I cooked from 6:30ish to 11:15 and made stuffed cabbage rolls (from a new recipe, not as good as from the old recipe), homemade chicken stock (from a carcas Denis never finished, this took forever), and homemade tomato pesto (using my mother's mortar and pestle (sp?) that she had given to me), plus did all the dishes. I had never made pesto by hand before, it was fun. I was going to bake as well, but after three glasses of wine and four or five Ani DiFranco CDs I was done. I even woke up early Saturday morning (who would think after the wine?) and made waffles.
Unfortunately none of my recipes worked for everyone. The broth had yet to be converted to actually chicken-vegetable soup, Denis wouldn't eat the pasta because it's all carbs and he's (sort-of) on that low-carb diet, and Andrew couldn't have the cabbage rolls because they use red meat. Should have made something with chicken breast.
The most fabulous thing that happened this weekend was that Andrew came to visit! Despite a harrowing trip Friday night (I'm sure he will fill you in) Andrew made it to North Adams and the joys of our PS2.
Saturday afternoon we headed out and stopped by the museum briefly to see the El Lissitzky show that I had worked on which had just opened. It looks great, although while we were in it Barbara (head of education) came in with a tour and asked me to give a brief off-the-cuff introduction to the exhibition. Despite being nervous (and unprepared), I talked for a couple of minutes, they seemed pretty happy with it, I got some applause.
Then we stopped for coffee (for Andrew, Denis and I don't have a coffee maker), icecream, and lemonades on Spring St. before heading off to the Falcon Ridge Folk festival. It was great! Although the first singer we heard was a little too overtly political for my taste, the next group was amusing and the acts we heard later in the evening were great. Overall the atmosphere was more family-friendly than herb-friendly, at least during the day. We danced a little swing at the dance tent and ate some yummy, if overpriced, fair food. (Being the good ex-girlscout that I am I did pack some snacks and drinks so we were not totally at the mercy of the booths). Dar, the reason for the trip, was wonderful. She sang late, we were sitting high on the steep hill that formed a natural amphitheater, it was cool and there were lots of people around (many holding up lights). The only irritation was that we could hear some of the music from the dance tent in the background. That somewhat disrupted Dar's lovely ballads, (I thought Iowa was particularly great in the setting), but overall I was happy with the experience. We heard a couple of songs by Arlo Guthrie before heading back to find the car. A great weekend, especially since we got to spend it with Andrew! It was marred somewhat by the fact that we had to work on Sunday, but definitely worth it.
Next weekend, family camping.
no subject
Hey, if Denis wants to lower carb intake but still wants to eat pasta, I'd suggest that you buy some whole wheat pasta. I think it tastes just as good as regular pasta, and since it's less processed (made with whole wheat flour instead of bleached white flour) and has a highter fiber content it tends to spike your sugar levels less, so there's less conversion into fat and it's healthier, though not as healthy as not eating pasta it's certainly an improvement. A couple months ago I switched to eating whole grains, while keeping the vast majority of my eating habits the same, and the result is that I've trimmed down a bit, but very gradually which is good. When I visited Taraneh this past weekend she definitely noticed, but it's been such a gradual change that I didn't really notice while it was happening. I substitute brown rice for white rice, whole wheat pasta for regular, and whole grain bread for white. It makes a difference over time - the main benefit is that you can eat the same volume of food that you were doing before, and still get the health benefits. And volume is goooood.
no subject
There's a pasta recipe that I enjoy making that involves half a bottle of Chianti, conveniently leaving the other half for drinking.
Although this is for beer rather than wine, I have one cookbook that actually specifically instructs you to drink the alcohol that you're not cooking with. I think that rocks. It's for a salsa which requires about 1/4 cup of mexican beer, and which then needs to sit in the fridge for about 20 minutes. The cookbook has specific instructions to finish the rest of the beer while you wait for the salsa.