Cheesecake Cake
Today is Julian's birthday! He now has the much lusted after iPad, a gift from his family, and the complete Battlestar Galactica series on blu-ray from me. He also received Pygmy, a Chuck Palahniuk novel, a copy of Carthage Must Be Destroyed the Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization, and a nifty designer tie. For dinner we had Cordon Bleu Beef Burgandy with rosemary bread and a chocolate cheesecake cake* for dessert.
Our Rochester friends, Jamie and Crystal, headed home yesterday morning after visiting for a few days. Thursday and Friday we took the T from Alewife into Boston and visited Boston Aquarium and the Museum of Fine Arts. The weedy and leafy seadragons were doing well and the jellyfish exhibit was also a hit. My favorite jelly this visit was the Australian spotted jellyfish, Phyllorhiza punctata, recognizable by a spotted dome and caulifloweresque tentacles. At the MFA we caught the Secrets of Tomb 10A and wandered through most of the Egyptian, Greek and Roman sections as well as the Impressionist room. I was excited to have a chance to read some of the glyphs on the Egyptian coffins and stellae. My translation skills are still extremely limited but I spotted the standard offering text several times as well as some familiar Kings' names like Tuthmosis and Menkaura. I also had a serendipitous meeting with a tourist from Baltimore who had visited Egypt twice (he shared his digital pictures) and also had some experience in reading hieroglyphs. His advice to me was to "Visit Egypt while you're still young!" and to keep up with my studies.
On Saturday we trekked over to Worcester to the Higgins Armory Museum. This time they had a demonstration on Viking/Norse fighting and a special exhibit, The Curious Collection of Professor Rufus Excalibur Bell that displayed eccentric oddities including the skeleton of a miniature centaur, a minotaur leg, sleeping mermaid, full sized yeti and various other creatures. At home we watched two seasons of The IT Crowd, a Brit comedy, and shared some lovely meals including mushroom risotto with rosemary pork chops, zucchini pasta with bbq sausage, and Gumbo Shop black eyed peas with rice and blackened chicken. Our friends enjoyed their visit to Boston and we're hoping to meet them again this summer for a weekend at Riverhouse.
*To make a cheesecake cake you take a cheesecake and layer it between two rounds of chocolate cake and smother the whole shebang in buttercream frosting.
Our Rochester friends, Jamie and Crystal, headed home yesterday morning after visiting for a few days. Thursday and Friday we took the T from Alewife into Boston and visited Boston Aquarium and the Museum of Fine Arts. The weedy and leafy seadragons were doing well and the jellyfish exhibit was also a hit. My favorite jelly this visit was the Australian spotted jellyfish, Phyllorhiza punctata, recognizable by a spotted dome and caulifloweresque tentacles. At the MFA we caught the Secrets of Tomb 10A and wandered through most of the Egyptian, Greek and Roman sections as well as the Impressionist room. I was excited to have a chance to read some of the glyphs on the Egyptian coffins and stellae. My translation skills are still extremely limited but I spotted the standard offering text several times as well as some familiar Kings' names like Tuthmosis and Menkaura. I also had a serendipitous meeting with a tourist from Baltimore who had visited Egypt twice (he shared his digital pictures) and also had some experience in reading hieroglyphs. His advice to me was to "Visit Egypt while you're still young!" and to keep up with my studies.
On Saturday we trekked over to Worcester to the Higgins Armory Museum. This time they had a demonstration on Viking/Norse fighting and a special exhibit, The Curious Collection of Professor Rufus Excalibur Bell that displayed eccentric oddities including the skeleton of a miniature centaur, a minotaur leg, sleeping mermaid, full sized yeti and various other creatures. At home we watched two seasons of The IT Crowd, a Brit comedy, and shared some lovely meals including mushroom risotto with rosemary pork chops, zucchini pasta with bbq sausage, and Gumbo Shop black eyed peas with rice and blackened chicken. Our friends enjoyed their visit to Boston and we're hoping to meet them again this summer for a weekend at Riverhouse.
*To make a cheesecake cake you take a cheesecake and layer it between two rounds of chocolate cake and smother the whole shebang in buttercream frosting.