Sailing

Yesterday we spent the morning sailing off Marblehead, MA. I think we've created a new generation of sailors.

Last summer I bought a thing off LivingSocial for a private chartered sailing lesson/tour, for up to six adults, with the intention of taking my stepson. There was a hurricane last summer, and other scheduling difficulties, and we were never able to use it. When my best friend and her 13-year-old son came to visit us this week, my original intent was to take everyone out to the Cape for the day, and possibly to NYC. But they've been traveling for the last month, and weren't too interested in long car trips.

So I got us all on the sailboat yesterday morning, and it was a huge hit. The two boys loved it, and have been pestering us for further sailing trips/sailing lessons ever since. The adults had a good time too--we drank beer at 10 in the morning, let the boys do the steering, and achieved a nice sunburn.

The rest of the visit was very relaxing--we didn't do much of anything, just sat around eating and drinking and watching movies and talking. I got three days off work, and now it's back to the grindstone.

For one day, anyway. Then tomorrow we head up to Montreal!

Pool party FTW

I spent Saturday with some very old friends from college, some of whom I hadn't seen in almost six years (and the rest I hadn't seen since my wedding). It was so good to see everyone again and hang out.

I'm still recovering. That's about all I can say about that.

Youth is definitely wasted on the young.

Wine coup

Several weeks ago, I got to taste a 23-year-old bottle of nebbiolo. It was the '89 Boca Le Piane, and it was delicious. All the fierce tannin of young nebbiolo had faded away, leaving just the fruit, and it was amazing.

When we got some in to the restaurant, I sold the crap out of it. But the wine manager refused to let me buy any at cost from him, since we only had a few bottles. There were wailings and lamentations at that.

Oh, but then! Last night, he discovered the very last bottle had a scuffed label--unsuitable for customers, so he told me I could finally have one.

I am now the excited and proud owner of a 23-year-old wine, and I'm going to drink the shit out of it.

Let's all pause for a moment and remember what we were doing in 1989.

I was starting high school--the worst three years of my life. (I say three, because as we all know, I skipped that last year entirely to start college early). You couldn't pay me enough to live through even one more day of high school.

Today I'm visiting some very old and dear friends from college. I may drink this wine with them (I haven't decided). I may save it for when my best friend visits next week. Either way, this wine is older than all of those friendships.

But not by much.

My first cherry tomato!

Isn't it a beauty?

It almost makes up for the hour-and-forty-five minutes it took me to get to work yesterday.

Still no definitive news one way or the other on Silicon Valley. Today my stepson arrives for a two-week stay, and on Tuesday my best friend and her now-teenage-son will join us. So I'll be hosting two teenage boys. Yay me. I'm taking some days off work; we'll spend one of them at the Cape, one of them in NYC, and one of them just hanging around the house. After they leave, we'll take stepson to Montreal for a couple of days--his first trip out of the country! Then it's back to the grindstone for me.

So, yeah, commuting to work has been particularly gruesome lately. But one of my fellow servers also works for a nonprofit farm, and brings their produce to our kitchen. I asked him if I could purchase some of his super-cheap produce, as well, and he brought me a huge bag of stuff for free. I'm going to take him some banana bread and cookies in exchange. A big bag of zucchini, two eggplants, and a big bag of green peppers, all fresh-picked!

Also, I started washing my hair again. It wasn't noticeably greasy (I don't think) after two months of no shampoo, but it just felt weirdly gummy to me. It's clean now, which means it's frizzy again.

Oh, and we're getting a roommate for the month of September! A friend of mine recently returned to Providence, and she's staying with various people until she can get settled. I'm happy to have her--we're not using that spare bedroom, and we can certainly use a little extra money in exchange.

Silicon Valley?

I owe everyone an update, I know. I've been kind of lax about blogging lately, but it's hard to feel like writing when you're working 60 hours a week on your feet and commuting another 12-15 hours on top of that. Traffic is still a nightmare and I still basically want to kill every human on the planet after I get home from work.

Fortunately I had all day yesterday and today off. A weekend day off! Two days off, in a row! The mind boggles. I'm starting to unwind a little.

Last Monday we drove back into Boston for newly-inaugurated wine class at the restaurant, and followed that up with burgers at a gastropub. The name of my restaurant came up in conversation with the bartender, which got us all kinds of unexpected freebies. I was very pleasantly surprised and happy. There's something to this being in the industry thing, after all. We met a friend of mine for a quick drink afterwards. I also found out that another friend of mine, who'd left earlier in the summer for Montana, is now returning to RI this week. Frankly, I'm not sure why, but I'll be glad to have her back in town.

Yesterday we had dinner at my former restaurant, and the cooks really went all out. They sent out wave after wave of new yumminess to us, which we washed down with a cut-rate bottle of wine. Have I mentioned I like this being an insider thing? Good to see everybody again, too.

Hubs had a promising phone interview this week, with a company in Silicon Valley. They make one of his all-time favorite games, so he's keeping his fingers crossed. Silicon Valley is expensive, but at least there are good restaurants there--I wouldn't have to commute all the way to San Fran to work. But if he gets the job and I find out I have two and a half weeks to move cross-country--AGAIN--I may have to scream. I'll worry about that after he gets the job, though. First things first.