Ingrid Concert

This past monday (9/21) we saw Ingrid Michaelson for the...3rd.maybe 4th time at Cat's Cradle.
You know you are old when a monday night concert requires a pot of coffee, and no alcohol is involved in the course of the night. Regardless, we loved it. I'd have to say that she is one of the best performers i have ever seen. Not just that she sounds good, but she is hilarious. Above is someone's bad video of the concert. I must confess this is the one good thing about people who spend more time at a concert taking pictures and video than actually listening. While I am generally grumpy about these kinds of people (alway looking to the future- never enjoying the now) I actually despise people who pay money for a ticket for a sold out show, walk past the bunch of people at the door looking for tickets, proceed in to, no, not listen, but tell bad drunken stories loudly, or stand in a circle nursing beers talking the whole time as if they are at home- just chatting away... it's best to not get me started on this. Anyway, the clip above is pretty crappy- If you are interested in hearing her music more, check out her myspace page.

Other than that- I am glad to report no swine flu here.
We're excited to go to Michelle's wedding this weekend. I have been practicing the epic corinthians passage and am determined to at least do as good as linda, but minus the alcohol... i'm not that good in heels.

Oh, Tomatoes!

Prior to this summer, I would not eat raw tomatoes.
Now, I eat those little sungold ones like gummy bears, pop and squash :)

Also, not so recently

kelly had the best recipe ever. Figs sauteed and bathed in reduced frangelico topped with bleu cheese. I'd say more about it, but really, it stands for itself.

Once upon a month ago...

I had a birthday. 25. A quarter of a century. Felt pretty much like every other day really. The only telling sign of age would be my inability to consume large amounts of alcoholic beverages late at night/ morning and still mildly function the next day. But this is not new, this happened after I left undergrad. Or maybe my definition of "mildly function" has changed. Either way...

We celebrated at home, with a little company. We were puppy sitting Zelda for the weekend. She is quite a bundle of energy and we were excited that Lucy and her survived the weekend without an incident. Being the birthday girl I set the rules: I got to cook. whatever i wanted. A week previously Linda had given me my present- Mastering the art of french cooking and the 6 DVD set of the French Chef. So naturally I did it up Julia style. I cannot remember the names of the dishes but we had an appetizer of scallops followed by flounder over rice with green beans with a lovely white wine. For my birthday cake: the queen of sheba cake. I learned that Julia's "wobbly in the middle" means barely wobbly in the center (no big deal, just threw it back in the pan, tidied it up and re-baked it). It was fantastic- like fudgy brownie cake. lovely.

It was a fantastic birthday, full of butter, chocolate, wine and puppies. It does not get better.

Same old.

After returning from a fantastic vacation, not much is new. Linda has started class, and is rapidly learning fantastic things about photoshop ( I'm glad one of us is functional with it). I've settled back into my work routine, but a little earlier now since Linda gets up earlier. it's rather nice to have a bit of quiet time before everyone else starts arriving. But that's about it. The garden is yielding an alarming amount of tomatoes, which means lots of pasta and bruchetta for us. In the end I think the tomatoes and beans were the most functional of our crop this summer. However, I must admit, that our tending has been wanting- hence the demise of the onions. No cucumbers this year, oddly enough. Last year we had more than we knew what to do with (i've just recently started to want to eat pickles again). I'm starting to brainstorm about the fall garden- and am sure it will include lots of greens.

Wednesday morning means it's not Friday. It's not even Thursday.

We went to see Harry Potter last night- the 12:05 opening night show. As usual it was followed by a long dialogue of what was forgotten, left out and overall unsatisfying. Lord of the Rings and Pride and Prejudice (A&E BBC) did things right: put it all in, do it right or don't make it at all. I wonder what JK Rowling thinks of these bastardized children of hers on the screen.

On a related note: lack of sleep makes work rough. Scratch that. lack of sleep makes is hard for me to communicate in a polite manner to others in the work place. days like today require an ipod, coffee and lack of eye contact.

On other fronts not too much has been happening these days. Lately we've been really into biking. About twice a week we take a 14-18 mile ride out to the maple view ice cream store and back. Ice cream is a powerful motivator and we are currently thinking of other rides and motivations, but it seems it can't get better than ice cream. Unless it's a T-shirt and Burrito: this past weekend we did a 30 mile ride set up by the Triangle Land Conservancy- Ride for the Land. It was longer than we've ever gone before and it went quite well. In the end we were glad we decided to do the 30 mile ride rather than the 45- I don't think our butts could have handled the last 15 miles- even through the padding it got uncomfortable at the end.

Linda is wrapping up her full time job for the transition back into full time student, and I'm transitioning back into work mode after my oral qualifying exam. And in the meantime, the house has been repainted, the garden is yielding tomatoes, our squash has succumbed to some kind of parasite, Lucy is recovering from her limp from hiking too much and we've discovered the best condiment ever:

Parsley Almond Sauce
1 shallot, diced
salt
2-3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons capers, chopped fine
1 bunch parsley, chopped fine
1/2 cup almonds, toasted and chopped fine
olive oil

Place shallot, vinegar and salt in bowl. Let sit for several minutes. Add capers, parsley, and almonds. Toss. Add enough olive oil so that the sauce is loose. Keeps in fridge for one week.

So we didn't have shallots and substituted garlic and onion instead and it's fair to say I am in love.
(Linda will post pictures soon!)

more pictures