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sarea
Garden Stuff...
I had quite the adventure at Flower World on Saturday. I spent a ton of time roaming around, coveting all the pretty and unusual-looking flower transplants they had available, but not getting them because I don't actually have any interest at the moment in floral gardening (particularly annuals, which most of them were). I also had to resist getting a bunch of things I wanted but didn't really need THAT VERY DAY, because I had to cancel my Discover card and get a new one (long, lame story), and I want to hold off on spending money as much as I can until I get the new card. I spent a lot of time finding the stuff I did want right away -- herbs, another (bigger) aloe vera, pots, and fish emulsion -- only to realize after I stood in the long line to pay that I did not have my wallet.
Argh. I then had to drive all the way home, which isn't that far away, but far enough away to be annoying. While I was at it, I retrieved my camera because I had noticed some geese at the nursery (there's this whole area of the nursery that's like a mini park, except there are also chickens squawking really loudly) swimming in a pond, and they looked really cool. So I went home, got my camera and wallet, then drove back. I bought the stuff, which I'd had them put on hold (and which cost way more than I had happily imagined in my mind), and went to take some photos. Except after two bad shots, my camera wouldn't take any more. The battery was drained. O.M.G.
I bought chocolate mint, which I plan to keep potted. It really smells like mint with a subtle chocolate scent! I also bought some lamb's ears, which I just adore, even if I can't eat them. I don't know how long they'll last, frankly, because it's not like I have any special part of the yard dedicated to non-edibles, I just kind of dug a hole and stuck it in there. >.> I just loooooooove feeling the soft leaves.
In case you're interested, there are some recent photos of my seedlings on this thread. They're about a month old, and I saw someone else's month-old seedlings in Florida, and OMG at the difference! Theirs are like super mature plants, while mine still look like little babies, even if some of them are developing their pretty true leaves. I blame the cold start of spring we've had so far. :/ Mine are nowhere near ready to even try to harden for transplanting! Grr.
===
Food Stuff...
Had a lovely dinner withcorianderstem last night. We went to Seastar. The food was good and generously portioned, even if it was subtly less refined than some of the other places I've been recently. It's still upscale dining for sure, but there just isn't as much creative juice around the food.
I ended up ordering a fairly non-seafood dinner, which I didn't do on purpose and didn't realize until after dinner was over. If I'd thought about it I probably would have gone with other choices, even though I was really happy with what I got. I started with their Maytag salad, which had toasted hazelnuts, shrimp, and sliced pear, tossed with a bleu cheese dressing -- it was really good; entree was grilled top sirloin with garlic portabella mushroom; dessert was a white chocolate coconut creme pie. They overcooked the steak a bit (I'd asked for medium rare), but it was still tender and had very good flavor. The pie was good, but not quite as good as Dahlia's. My favorite part was definitely the salad, I totally could have eaten it as an entree.
A. started with the Dungeness crab and corn bisque, which she really seemed to enjoy. Her entree was the Chef's Choice Sushi Plate, which sounded realllly good (it was my second choice), but the reality ended up being less impressive. The menu said that it came with 16 pieces of maki and nigiri, and I assumed that that meant 8 pieces of maki and 8 pieces of nigiri, which would be pretty typical for a sushi plate. In fact, it came with 4 pieces of nigiri and 6 pieces each of 2 different maki rolls. Unfortunately, they weren't really up A.'s alley. :( One was a spicy tuna (which she was OK with; I normally don't like spicy tuna but I tried it and thought it had a very good flavor) and the other was some kind of nouveau type maki, with hamachi, cilantro, and jalapeno. Again I thought it had a good flavor (even though it was a bit heavier on the cilantro than I might have desired), but A. did not care for it at all. Luckily the creme brulee she had for dessert was very good.
Overall, I really liked the restaurant, though I don't know that I liked it enough to go during non-Restaurant Week. For the same amount of money I could go to other upscale restaurants that are a little more creative/more special when it comes to their food. But the promotion was definitely a great deal, because the food was good (and the portions were generous), the atmosphere was nice, and they validated parking. I can't imagine that they made anything from my meal.
Oh! I posted pics of my food from Crush to my food blog, here. I took my camera to Seastar, but accidentally had left my SD card at work. D'oh!!
===
Reading stuff...
- Throne of Jade (Temeraire Book 2): Totally into this! Laurence and Temeraire are as entertaining as always (OMG how funny was his delirious note at the beginning), and am very interested in all the China stuff. Very curious to see how this is all going to work out.
- Into the Wild (story of Chris McCandless): Very, very interesting, but it's giving me nightmares. Seriously, I read a chapter or two, and then I have these bad dreams about either what happened to McCandless or some other explorer that the author tells us about. I should stop reading it right before bed, but that's when I feel like picking it up!
- Breaking Dawn: I've read a little more. Yeah, my compromise of reading a chapter of this, then something else, etc., is no longer happening. I just don't have any real interest, because I always get so irritated when reading it. And who wants to feel that way?
- Goblet of Fire: I'm not reading this one, but am listening to the audio book while driving. Stephen Fry's version is 100x better than Jim Dale's.
I've also vaguely been wanting to reread Anne of Green Gables, one of the best books evar. Yesterday I found a copy of it at HPB that was printed in 1935 and bought it. I just love old books like that; I can't wait to read it. I know, I'm weird.
I had quite the adventure at Flower World on Saturday. I spent a ton of time roaming around, coveting all the pretty and unusual-looking flower transplants they had available, but not getting them because I don't actually have any interest at the moment in floral gardening (particularly annuals, which most of them were). I also had to resist getting a bunch of things I wanted but didn't really need THAT VERY DAY, because I had to cancel my Discover card and get a new one (long, lame story), and I want to hold off on spending money as much as I can until I get the new card. I spent a lot of time finding the stuff I did want right away -- herbs, another (bigger) aloe vera, pots, and fish emulsion -- only to realize after I stood in the long line to pay that I did not have my wallet.
Argh. I then had to drive all the way home, which isn't that far away, but far enough away to be annoying. While I was at it, I retrieved my camera because I had noticed some geese at the nursery (there's this whole area of the nursery that's like a mini park, except there are also chickens squawking really loudly) swimming in a pond, and they looked really cool. So I went home, got my camera and wallet, then drove back. I bought the stuff, which I'd had them put on hold (and which cost way more than I had happily imagined in my mind), and went to take some photos. Except after two bad shots, my camera wouldn't take any more. The battery was drained. O.M.G.
I bought chocolate mint, which I plan to keep potted. It really smells like mint with a subtle chocolate scent! I also bought some lamb's ears, which I just adore, even if I can't eat them. I don't know how long they'll last, frankly, because it's not like I have any special part of the yard dedicated to non-edibles, I just kind of dug a hole and stuck it in there. >.> I just loooooooove feeling the soft leaves.
In case you're interested, there are some recent photos of my seedlings on this thread. They're about a month old, and I saw someone else's month-old seedlings in Florida, and OMG at the difference! Theirs are like super mature plants, while mine still look like little babies, even if some of them are developing their pretty true leaves. I blame the cold start of spring we've had so far. :/ Mine are nowhere near ready to even try to harden for transplanting! Grr.
===
Food Stuff...
Had a lovely dinner with
corianderstem last night. We went to Seastar. The food was good and generously portioned, even if it was subtly less refined than some of the other places I've been recently. It's still upscale dining for sure, but there just isn't as much creative juice around the food.I ended up ordering a fairly non-seafood dinner, which I didn't do on purpose and didn't realize until after dinner was over. If I'd thought about it I probably would have gone with other choices, even though I was really happy with what I got. I started with their Maytag salad, which had toasted hazelnuts, shrimp, and sliced pear, tossed with a bleu cheese dressing -- it was really good; entree was grilled top sirloin with garlic portabella mushroom; dessert was a white chocolate coconut creme pie. They overcooked the steak a bit (I'd asked for medium rare), but it was still tender and had very good flavor. The pie was good, but not quite as good as Dahlia's. My favorite part was definitely the salad, I totally could have eaten it as an entree.
A. started with the Dungeness crab and corn bisque, which she really seemed to enjoy. Her entree was the Chef's Choice Sushi Plate, which sounded realllly good (it was my second choice), but the reality ended up being less impressive. The menu said that it came with 16 pieces of maki and nigiri, and I assumed that that meant 8 pieces of maki and 8 pieces of nigiri, which would be pretty typical for a sushi plate. In fact, it came with 4 pieces of nigiri and 6 pieces each of 2 different maki rolls. Unfortunately, they weren't really up A.'s alley. :( One was a spicy tuna (which she was OK with; I normally don't like spicy tuna but I tried it and thought it had a very good flavor) and the other was some kind of nouveau type maki, with hamachi, cilantro, and jalapeno. Again I thought it had a good flavor (even though it was a bit heavier on the cilantro than I might have desired), but A. did not care for it at all. Luckily the creme brulee she had for dessert was very good.
Overall, I really liked the restaurant, though I don't know that I liked it enough to go during non-Restaurant Week. For the same amount of money I could go to other upscale restaurants that are a little more creative/more special when it comes to their food. But the promotion was definitely a great deal, because the food was good (and the portions were generous), the atmosphere was nice, and they validated parking. I can't imagine that they made anything from my meal.
Oh! I posted pics of my food from Crush to my food blog, here. I took my camera to Seastar, but accidentally had left my SD card at work. D'oh!!
===
Reading stuff...
- Throne of Jade (Temeraire Book 2): Totally into this! Laurence and Temeraire are as entertaining as always (OMG how funny was his delirious note at the beginning), and am very interested in all the China stuff. Very curious to see how this is all going to work out.
- Into the Wild (story of Chris McCandless): Very, very interesting, but it's giving me nightmares. Seriously, I read a chapter or two, and then I have these bad dreams about either what happened to McCandless or some other explorer that the author tells us about. I should stop reading it right before bed, but that's when I feel like picking it up!
- Breaking Dawn: I've read a little more. Yeah, my compromise of reading a chapter of this, then something else, etc., is no longer happening. I just don't have any real interest, because I always get so irritated when reading it. And who wants to feel that way?
- Goblet of Fire: I'm not reading this one, but am listening to the audio book while driving. Stephen Fry's version is 100x better than Jim Dale's.
I've also vaguely been wanting to reread Anne of Green Gables, one of the best books evar. Yesterday I found a copy of it at HPB that was printed in 1935 and bought it. I just love old books like that; I can't wait to read it. I know, I'm weird.
