Le Grand Recap
So much in the past 2 weeks, so little time for lj... photos & words behind the cuts.
In a previous post I showed a picture of the dress I bought, that i found shoes, and was on a fruitless search for a handbag and a wrap. Well, I found the handbag for the shoes, pictured together there on the right. (Occaisionally I mention that two of the six(!) walls in my bedroom are purple. Well, that's the purple wall forming the backdrop.)
I think I need to frame the handbag... maybe in a shadow box or something... display as art when I am not using it. Might help to justify what I spent on the bag... normally I spend very little on handbags, and even less on evening bags, prefering to get them for a few $$ from consignment stores.. not from arty South Pasadena boutiques. But dang it if it didn't totally match the shoes. The shawl came from the store "next door"... actually the two stores are half of an interesting set of 4 boutiques that share a building with a common entrance for all stores.
Meanwhile... while running around all over trying to find dress, shoes, handbag, and shawl, the insole of one my shoes (clogs) slipped out of place, forcing me to walk unevenly. Foolishly, I kept walking on it, instead of digging out another pair of shoes out of the luggage stashed in the car (we hadn't checked in to the hotel yet) til about 5pm, and then switched into heels for the evening (dinner at the culinary school). D'ohh. Tuesday i woke up with a very sore puffy ankle that took a week to fully heal. "Uh yeah. I hurt myself shopping." Stupid me. I did at least manage to wear the new sandals to dinner wednesday night.
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Brian and I had for ages been meaning to eat at Bistro 561, the restaurant for the California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena, in the Playhouse District. It's only open Mon-Fri, and when Brian was still living down there, I generally arrived too late for Friday dinner. Two Mondays ago, though, we drove by the school and saw the restaurant was open, and we were able to get a table.
Dinner was utterly fantastic. You wouldn't think it was a "student-run" restaurant.. the menu was interesting, the food was spectacular, and the service was excellent. Probably one of the best dinners out I've had down there. We had:
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Our Valentine's Day dinner at Cicada was our first Valentine's Day since getting married, and also the first Valentine's Day that we've actually been able to spend together. (That's what you get for having a long distance relationship.)
The food was amazing at Cicada... they had a special prix fixe dinner, which included tuna tartare for both of us; filet mignon for brian & venison for me; and, well, i didn't take notes and they didnt post the menu online. But it was really good. And the atmosphere... well, the place was all decked out for Valentine's day. And they had Max Vontaine, Crooner Extraordinare performing. It was just so... well... picture: Guy who sounds like Frank Sinatra. Singing the standards. Wearing a black suit and shirt, red tie. Singing, spotlit, in front of a red velvet curtain, with a prop cigarette in hand. It would abosolutely be corny, except the guy is really, really good.
It was great fun getting all dressed up... and for once in Los Angeles I didn't feel underdressed or like the dumpy granola santa cruz girl. (Los Angeles has either been really bad for my self-image, or really good for making me decide to stop feeling sorry for myself and to get pro-active about changing things about my appearance that make me unhappy.) But stupidly we did not get a picture of me all dressed up... the candlelit photo at the left is the only one of us we took! This coming saturday we'll have a chance to correct this, since we're going to Opera San Jose with my parents to see La Traviata, and I'll wear the same thing.
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The Umpteenth Annual Chez Lemur Mardi Gras Party --- So sunday we chopped up all the veggies, and monday we did all the cooking... and tuesday we set up for the party. People arrived, sisterbean plied us with hurricanes, much food was consumed, many beverages were consumed, and in addition to my bread pudding with the bourbon sauce of DOOM, two guests brought birthday cakes for their birthday-boy husbands, so we got super crazy dessert overload on top of everything else. Smaller turnout than last year, but a good number for the size of the room.. no people overflowing up the stairs or spilling into the kitchen (too much). As things winded their way down near midnight, Brian pulled out the camera and took a few pictures of the folx looking really full.. we finally got to bed at around 4am. Much fun, but my body doesn't handle the near-all-nighters like it used to.
#
The morning after the Mardi Gras party, I woke up and realized that I had left the stewed okra and tomatoes in the serving bowl in the microwave... never brought it out for the party. Well, if there were any one thing that i would really not mind having a ton of leftovers of... this would be it. I made a double recipe, even, and I am still not at all upset. My friend Carrie stayed over for a few days after the party, and dinner Wednesday night was polenta and stewed okra ... and then thursday morning when i wandered downstairs, she was having stewed okra for breakfast. So I am not the only one who knows this stuff is damned damned good.
Wednesday was pretty much spent in a haze, what with waking up at noon, going out for lunch at 3, coming back for lunch and taking a long nap, getting up at 8 to hit the grocery store (I remember to get "emergency food" for when I am doing mardi gras prep, but i really need to remember to buy stuff for the day after, too... fruit, bread... light and easy stuff) and then eating the aforementioned okra and heading to bed by 1am, just as the storm came in. Woke up Thursday during a break in the storm. The three of us went on a long walk down to Seabright Beach... we were able to walk through the passage in the cave to the Boardwalk side of the cliff, up the cliff, across the trestle, along the boardwalk, up to downtown (lunch at Pergolesi) and then back to my house. Fantastic "break in storm" weather, took a bunch of photos, and then the rain started again just a few blocks from the house. It was good to get exercise again since I have kinda fallen off the exercise wagon the past few weeks. (The shopping injury certainly didn't help.)
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Scratch the friday plans... it is destined, I shall never scuba dive again... Or that is what it is beginning to feel like. Brian has the week off work and so we had been planning to go dive thursday or friday... post-post-mardi-gras-recovery. And the storm has come in, and the water is churned up, and while it's not going to be stormy tomorrow, I am not sure the conditions will live up to my "but it's better than not diving" mantra. Saturday is out, unless we want to sleep through the opera.
We're signed up for a boat dive on March 4th, though, so hopefully that will work out for us. It's an interesting set-up... the dive is scheduled for the Carmel Bay, off Monastery Beach. There is no boat launch there, so the plan is... Drive to Monterey, load up gear minus wetsuit, mask, fins onto the boat. Get back in car, drive to Monastery Beach. Boat travels around the peninsula and anchors in the bay off the beach. We get into wetsuits and fins and mask and swim to boat. Among other things, saves us from potentially sick-making boat ride to dive-site, and boat operators from a boat full of sick people.
In a previous post I showed a picture of the dress I bought, that i found shoes, and was on a fruitless search for a handbag and a wrap. Well, I found the handbag for the shoes, pictured together there on the right. (Occaisionally I mention that two of the six(!) walls in my bedroom are purple. Well, that's the purple wall forming the backdrop.)
I think I need to frame the handbag... maybe in a shadow box or something... display as art when I am not using it. Might help to justify what I spent on the bag... normally I spend very little on handbags, and even less on evening bags, prefering to get them for a few $$ from consignment stores.. not from arty South Pasadena boutiques. But dang it if it didn't totally match the shoes. The shawl came from the store "next door"... actually the two stores are half of an interesting set of 4 boutiques that share a building with a common entrance for all stores.
Meanwhile... while running around all over trying to find dress, shoes, handbag, and shawl, the insole of one my shoes (clogs) slipped out of place, forcing me to walk unevenly. Foolishly, I kept walking on it, instead of digging out another pair of shoes out of the luggage stashed in the car (we hadn't checked in to the hotel yet) til about 5pm, and then switched into heels for the evening (dinner at the culinary school). D'ohh. Tuesday i woke up with a very sore puffy ankle that took a week to fully heal. "Uh yeah. I hurt myself shopping." Stupid me. I did at least manage to wear the new sandals to dinner wednesday night.
#
Brian and I had for ages been meaning to eat at Bistro 561, the restaurant for the California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena, in the Playhouse District. It's only open Mon-Fri, and when Brian was still living down there, I generally arrived too late for Friday dinner. Two Mondays ago, though, we drove by the school and saw the restaurant was open, and we were able to get a table.
Dinner was utterly fantastic. You wouldn't think it was a "student-run" restaurant.. the menu was interesting, the food was spectacular, and the service was excellent. Probably one of the best dinners out I've had down there. We had:
- Roasted Cauliflower Soup, Caramelized Cauliflower Florets, Truffle Oil, Herbs of the Moment (shared)
- "Black Cod Two Ways" Pan Seared Black Cod with Cauliflower Puree, Fennel Confit and Spicy Miso Nage; Crispy Battered Black Cod with Pommes Frittes and Truffle Aioli (Brian)
- Buffalo Filet Mignon, Potato Gratin, Smothered Peppers and Sweet Onions, Whole Grain Mustard Sauce(me)
- "Chestnut and Cocoa Soufflé" - Served with a Maccha Sabayon and Forest Berry Gelato (shared)
#
Our Valentine's Day dinner at Cicada was our first Valentine's Day since getting married, and also the first Valentine's Day that we've actually been able to spend together. (That's what you get for having a long distance relationship.)
The food was amazing at Cicada... they had a special prix fixe dinner, which included tuna tartare for both of us; filet mignon for brian & venison for me; and, well, i didn't take notes and they didnt post the menu online. But it was really good. And the atmosphere... well, the place was all decked out for Valentine's day. And they had Max Vontaine, Crooner Extraordinare performing. It was just so... well... picture: Guy who sounds like Frank Sinatra. Singing the standards. Wearing a black suit and shirt, red tie. Singing, spotlit, in front of a red velvet curtain, with a prop cigarette in hand. It would abosolutely be corny, except the guy is really, really good.
It was great fun getting all dressed up... and for once in Los Angeles I didn't feel underdressed or like the dumpy granola santa cruz girl. (Los Angeles has either been really bad for my self-image, or really good for making me decide to stop feeling sorry for myself and to get pro-active about changing things about my appearance that make me unhappy.) But stupidly we did not get a picture of me all dressed up... the candlelit photo at the left is the only one of us we took! This coming saturday we'll have a chance to correct this, since we're going to Opera San Jose with my parents to see La Traviata, and I'll wear the same thing.
#
The Umpteenth Annual Chez Lemur Mardi Gras Party --- So sunday we chopped up all the veggies, and monday we did all the cooking... and tuesday we set up for the party. People arrived, sisterbean plied us with hurricanes, much food was consumed, many beverages were consumed, and in addition to my bread pudding with the bourbon sauce of DOOM, two guests brought birthday cakes for their birthday-boy husbands, so we got super crazy dessert overload on top of everything else. Smaller turnout than last year, but a good number for the size of the room.. no people overflowing up the stairs or spilling into the kitchen (too much). As things winded their way down near midnight, Brian pulled out the camera and took a few pictures of the folx looking really full.. we finally got to bed at around 4am. Much fun, but my body doesn't handle the near-all-nighters like it used to.
#
The morning after the Mardi Gras party, I woke up and realized that I had left the stewed okra and tomatoes in the serving bowl in the microwave... never brought it out for the party. Well, if there were any one thing that i would really not mind having a ton of leftovers of... this would be it. I made a double recipe, even, and I am still not at all upset. My friend Carrie stayed over for a few days after the party, and dinner Wednesday night was polenta and stewed okra ... and then thursday morning when i wandered downstairs, she was having stewed okra for breakfast. So I am not the only one who knows this stuff is damned damned good.
Wednesday was pretty much spent in a haze, what with waking up at noon, going out for lunch at 3, coming back for lunch and taking a long nap, getting up at 8 to hit the grocery store (I remember to get "emergency food" for when I am doing mardi gras prep, but i really need to remember to buy stuff for the day after, too... fruit, bread... light and easy stuff) and then eating the aforementioned okra and heading to bed by 1am, just as the storm came in. Woke up Thursday during a break in the storm. The three of us went on a long walk down to Seabright Beach... we were able to walk through the passage in the cave to the Boardwalk side of the cliff, up the cliff, across the trestle, along the boardwalk, up to downtown (lunch at Pergolesi) and then back to my house. Fantastic "break in storm" weather, took a bunch of photos, and then the rain started again just a few blocks from the house. It was good to get exercise again since I have kinda fallen off the exercise wagon the past few weeks. (The shopping injury certainly didn't help.)
#
Scratch the friday plans... it is destined, I shall never scuba dive again... Or that is what it is beginning to feel like. Brian has the week off work and so we had been planning to go dive thursday or friday... post-post-mardi-gras-recovery. And the storm has come in, and the water is churned up, and while it's not going to be stormy tomorrow, I am not sure the conditions will live up to my "but it's better than not diving" mantra. Saturday is out, unless we want to sleep through the opera.
We're signed up for a boat dive on March 4th, though, so hopefully that will work out for us. It's an interesting set-up... the dive is scheduled for the Carmel Bay, off Monastery Beach. There is no boat launch there, so the plan is... Drive to Monterey, load up gear minus wetsuit, mask, fins onto the boat. Get back in car, drive to Monastery Beach. Boat travels around the peninsula and anchors in the bay off the beach. We get into wetsuits and fins and mask and swim to boat. Among other things, saves us from potentially sick-making boat ride to dive-site, and boat operators from a boat full of sick people.