Birthday redux
Sunday was my birthday - one of those round number ones - but no big deal to me. I had considered admitting I had reached middle age when I reached 70. I'm still not sure I'm middle aged yet.
On Saturday night we celebrated it at our local contra dance. I sponsored the band - Rumblestrip which had a mandolin / banjo players, a fiddler, and a guitar / vocals / percussion - feet and others. (I'd requested a band with a mandolin or banjo). They were lively and it a very nice dance. Robert brought a most excellent Rosie's Bakery mocha cake and it was delicious. It was quite large and all but one piece was eaten which we took home and ate on Sunday night.
Sunday was a nice quiet day which would have been better had it ended with the Red Sox winning the ALCS and going onto the World Series (to which we had tickets for last night's game) but it didn't end up that way.
On Tuesday, as is one of our birthday traditions, Robert took me out to dinner at Troquet - a restaurant which we'd gone to a long time ago. They have a nice menu with suggested wine pairings which we followed. I had a delicious crispy skin duck confit as my appetizer and sea bass en croute for my main. This did lead to red wine for the appetizer and white for the main which isn't the way I'd usually choose but it was fine. Robert had a Langoustine dish for his appetizer and Veal with sweetbreads for his main. For desert we split a trio of lemon things and an apple crisp soufflé with tea for me and decaf expresso for Robert. The meal was excellent. And they scored high on the four things I always note: we were immediately greeted at the door, the butter was unsalted and soft, they kept the water glasses full, and the tea was served in a teapot with leaves and a strainer and it was hot. It is amazing how some really good restaurants really fall short on some or all these items.
On Saturday night we celebrated it at our local contra dance. I sponsored the band - Rumblestrip which had a mandolin / banjo players, a fiddler, and a guitar / vocals / percussion - feet and others. (I'd requested a band with a mandolin or banjo). They were lively and it a very nice dance. Robert brought a most excellent Rosie's Bakery mocha cake and it was delicious. It was quite large and all but one piece was eaten which we took home and ate on Sunday night.
Sunday was a nice quiet day which would have been better had it ended with the Red Sox winning the ALCS and going onto the World Series (to which we had tickets for last night's game) but it didn't end up that way.
On Tuesday, as is one of our birthday traditions, Robert took me out to dinner at Troquet - a restaurant which we'd gone to a long time ago. They have a nice menu with suggested wine pairings which we followed. I had a delicious crispy skin duck confit as my appetizer and sea bass en croute for my main. This did lead to red wine for the appetizer and white for the main which isn't the way I'd usually choose but it was fine. Robert had a Langoustine dish for his appetizer and Veal with sweetbreads for his main. For desert we split a trio of lemon things and an apple crisp soufflé with tea for me and decaf expresso for Robert. The meal was excellent. And they scored high on the four things I always note: we were immediately greeted at the door, the butter was unsalted and soft, they kept the water glasses full, and the tea was served in a teapot with leaves and a strainer and it was hot. It is amazing how some really good restaurants really fall short on some or all these items.