Stuff:
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Yeah, so I skipped an entry yesterday.... just had no time or energy.
The drive home from the Boston area was not too bad yesterday. I had been in Lexington (exit 33 on I-95) so I did have to drive along a good amount of the Route 128/I-95 high-tech corridor around Boston, four lanes of heavy traffic that can vary back and forth from stop-and-go crawling to bumper-to-bumper at sixty miles an hour, but athough it did crawl along at times it never got as bad as I had been seeing in the morning while trying to just travel the four miles or so between exits 31 and 33... and traffic, although heavy, moved at a quite rapid pace through most of Massachusetts, until I crossed the border into Rhode Island and encountered really heavy stop-and-go rush-hour traffic through the Providence area. I had called home before leaving Rational to say I expected to be home between 5:30 and 6:00, but I didn't get stuck in any gridlock traffic jams and reached home by 5:15. My daughter was at a friend's house, Nancy was at her physical therapist (trying to fix her tennis elbow before spring tennis season arrives), but Sean was home... along with a mob of his friends... okay, so he only had three or four friends over, but that many fourteen year old males can seem like a mob, a thundering herd, a gathering of overly noisy primates... *sigh* .... Apparently Nancy had told him that his friends had to be gone by six o'oclock, which he interpreted as meaning 6:30.... by which time exactly one friend had left... and the others were still here and debating going roller-skating... Nancy arrived home around 6:30, Jennifer called to ask if she could sleep over, Sean and his buddies were still debating what to do, playing loud music, playing with the special effects on our camcorder and then watching the resulting images with much laughing and hooting... Nancy and I began wondering what to do for dinner when we simultaneously had the brilliant idea of eating out. Okay, Sean, your mother and I are going out to eat. If you are not here when we get back I will assume that I should pick you up at the roller rink at ten o'clock, here's ten bucks; if you are here when we get back you had better be here alone. So Nancy and I went to Ginger's Cafe on Main Street in Wakefield... Main St. is just what it sounds like, the main shopping street through the village (the "High Street" I suppose it would be for those of you in the U.K) It begins at one end in a cluster of strip mall shopping centers on route 108, proceeds through a few blocks of former residential buildings converted to professional offices (doctors, lawyers, real estate, etc.) and then becomes a traditional small town main street, about three quarters of a mile of mostly two and three story, mostly late nineteenth century or early twentieth century commercial buildings... Ginger's Cafe is an unpretentious storefront restaurant but it is a fine restaurant, not a hamburger joint... not very large... I've not counted the seating capacity, but I doubt that they could seat more than thirty people... Small, square, wood tables sized to seat either two or four people, but they can be pushed together to accomodate larger groups. A collection of water color paintings line the walls. They have a small menu of standard items, but they also have daily specials. Nancy and I selected similar orders... fish cakes in a remoulade sauce (one of the specials that evening)... Nancy followed that with a Caesar salad... I also got the salad, but mine was topped with grilled chicken breast... and I ordered a Guiness and she got a Harp Ale... there was a basket of fresh baked breads on the table along with some sweet butter whipped with herbs... And while we ate they had a musician playing the flute... It was lovely and we both quickly felt the stress and strain just draining away... They have a variety of home baked cakes and pies but we had both eaten enough and so we just came home. We've enjoyed Ginger's for dinner but I was thinking that sometime we should go there just for some kind of pastry and a cup of cappuccino. Late Friday night I did logon to the Internet and visited a few sites but, although I did update my list of online journals (to add a couple new ones I've been reading lately and to note that Dave Van has taken down his site) I didn't feel up to writing. It was still cold today and is supposed to get down near zero again tonight but the weather forecase claims that the winds are going to diminish, so at least we won't have thirty below zero wind chill factors. Sean and his buddies didn't go roller-skating last night but that's his plan for tonight... I dropped him off at a friend's house this afternoon... he was wearing denim shorts -- okay, so they were the super baggy kind that comes well below his knees but even so, it never got above the mid-teens despite the sunshine today -- and when I asked about a coat he pointed out that he was wearing a heavy zipped sweatshirt over a long-sleeved t-shirt -- brrrr... but he's old enough to know when he feels cold or not... I've done a little grocery shopping, just enough for tonight's dinner -- the menu will be spinach salad with mushrooms, etc... and then a very small broiled steak and some steamed veggies (sugar snap peas, green beans, brocolli, red peppers with a little lemon butter) and maybe some cous-cous... and I bought a nice fresh loaf of crusty sourdough rosemary bread. Sean's eating at a friend's house and Jennifer is out with friends and I think their plans included eating out... so it will just be Nancy and me... I've rented Run, Lola, Run ... a recent German film (in fact, it is in German, subtitled in English) that I seem to remember as getting some good reviews... besides, Holly recommended it. Holly owns the video store that I patronize... she is an absolute movie buff, it seems as if she has seen everything... she is very, very knowledgable about movies and can rattle off a quick capsule review of any movie I hold up and provide suggestions as to what movies we might enjoy. Nancy is out shopping for water color sets she needs for her Sunday school class tomorrow and it's almost 6:30 so I had better get started fixing dinner. Ooops, Jennifer just called, she will be home for dinner, but she doesn't like steak, would like a veggie-burger instead... sure I can do that and throw some french fries in the over, too... I think that I will increase the size of the spinach salads and drop the cous-cous from the menu... Okay, back to dinner preparation... |
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