The Neighbors

We've now spent many evenings sitting out in the back yard chatting with the neighbors, Roslindale natives Paul and Dierdre. They are super nice, fun people and we hit it off right away. So, as an enjoyer of food and the preparation thereof, I started asking about the things they like to eat so that I might one day wow them with an elegant yet casual dinner spread. Since our grills our 30 feet apart, I often see them cooking dinner. The only things I've seen them grill, however, are steaks, burgers, hot dogs, and boneless skinless chicken breasts, leaving me little to go on. During my initial inquiries, we established that Dierdre does not eat anything that has ever spent any portion of its life in water.

Lobsters? "God No."
Fried fish? "No sir."
Shrimp? "Eww."
Salmon? "I'll eat fish sticks but I don't really like 'em."

OK, so seafood's not their thing. Would you ever try venison? "Not in a million years." Her eating habits have since turned into a kind of running joke, where I talk about the stranger things I eat/have eaten and ask her if she likes them. The answer, invariably, is no. I had the queen mother of these exchanges with her yesterday evening. It started when Paul was saying how Dierdre sends him to work with treats for the mechanics in the auto shop he manages.

"Today I sent watermelon, I also do a lot of bacon."
"Wait, you send him to work with a pile of fried bacon?"
"No, bacon, the Boston way of saying baking."
"Oh, that makes more sense, but you could make a great salad out of watermelon, bacon, and some cheese."
"What kind of cheese?"
"Oh, goat or feta are the most common."
"I hate both of those."
"What kind of cheese do you like?"
"American."
"That's it?"
"Sometimes cheddar."
"Those are about the only two cheeses that would not be good in a bacon/watermelon salad. What about mozzarella?"
"I like mozzarella, but only melted on pizza, I wouldn't eat a big hunk of fresh mozzarella."
"Do you like blue cheese?"
"Hate it."
"Then what do you dip your chicken wings in ?!"
"I don't eat chicken wings."

Wild Weekend

Liz took the bus down to NYC to go to our friend Missy's bachelorette party on Saturday morning so I had a whole day and night to myself. I was pretty worried about her but tried to have some fun on my own. The list of things I was worried about included:

A group of unaccompanied females is an attractive target for Middle Eastern terrorists, New Jersey guidos.

Swine flu from contaminated penis straws.

Jeter and A-Rod confusing Liz for a man and stealing her away from me with their smug, soulless charms.

News, and the commencement of its dissemination.

Although somewhat paralyzed by worry, I attempted to soldier on and make some use of the day. After I dropped Liz off, I made myself a man sized breakfast of home fries, eggs, bacon, and Smuttynose IPA. I then played some golf, came home, and ate a dozen oysters with a G&T. Just when my night of bachelorhood was about to get really crazy, I sat down on the couch to watch the Twins, watched about 1.5 innings, then fell asleep and woke up around midnight. It was probably for the best since my coworker and I had plans to run a ~9 mile stretch of this trail that follows Boston harbor early the next day. It was a nice little weekend.

Weekend

Had a nice little weekend here. We played a game of poker on Friday night, a tournament for a new ipod touch my coworker got free with the purchase of a Mac. Liz exited early, leaving me to match wits with the field. It came down to me and a relatively inexperienced player who had a substantial chip lead after knocking out the last few players on a single hand. I went all in on an open ended straight draw after the flop which included an ace. I figured she didn't have an ace and would think I did, but like an idiot, she called me, winning the tournament on a jack high. She was pumped and I'm glad she won.

Saturday we checked a new state off our list--Rhode Island, America's Tattoo...

not...

We took our bikes and did a nice ride on a path along Narragansett Bay. It was nice, lots of tidal marshes and some rocky islands. Providence seemed nice and even had a brew pub. We had some wings whose superbly crafted sauce almost overcame the slightly overdone nature of the meat itself. All in all they were highly noshable but hardly life changing. The beer selection was not large, maybe 5 brews available. I had their imperial IPA which was nice and hoppy but served out of a cask. Its temperature was not ideal for post-bike ride refreshment. Liz's spicy blond ale was better. Here's a picture of Providence's skyline that I stole off the internet.

Do You See A Trend

As I type up this blog I am realizing that most everything I blog about has before and after pictures. I blame it on HGTV, What Not To Wear, and all those other shows that are about taking something and fixing it up. Well, if you like those shows and my posts, you'll like this post.

Every week I am amazed at our yard and garden. It really is beautiful. I have to give the previous homeowners props on all the perennials and how everything is scheduled to come up and bloom at different times.

Here is a pic from our front garden in March:




Our garden just a couple days ago:

The New Do

Liz - Before Cut




Liz - After Cut



Wow! I was a ghost before I went to the beach on Sunday. I'm glad that it looks like I have a nice tan in the photo (in real life it's more of a burn).

Bathroom Re-do

As many of you know, the previous owners of our house loved red and shades of red. One of the last rooms in our house screaming for me to cover up its embarrassing shade of pastel pink paint was our upstairs bathroom. I thought this would be an easy task, boy was I wrong...painting cabinets is not as easy as you would think. I started the project with less than a week before our friends Erin and Jon were scheduled to arrive. The night before their arrival the cabinets were still a bit tacky and I had Rick feverishly putting on new hinges and knobs. Everything looked great until we tried to close the cabinet doors. Turns out I may have put a little too much primer and paint on the insides of the doors and the cabinet base. Good thing we've got some tools. I took the wood plane (that's right, this was a job for a plane not some wimpy sand paper) and got rid of the cabinet I felt we no longer had a need for. So when you come to visit, don't snoop in our bathroom cabinets, they are not as pretty on the inside as the outside.

Upstairs Bathroom
Before

After

Fun Food Facts

We made baba ghanoush last night. It's pretty much pureed roasted eggplant, lemon juice, tahini, olives, and garlic in which we dipped toasted pitas. We enjoyed it; please don't tell homeland security. We had it with pork so we should be fine. The pork was infadelicious! Crap, the pork was spiced in a middle eastern fashion so maybe that cancels out the porkiness. But wait, we had wine with it too so we're probably not in imminent danger of landing in Guantanamo Bay.

And now for the fun fact--the molecule that makes us taste mint and the one that makes us taste black licorice are identical except they are mirror images (stereoisomers) of each other. Everyone knows this. What most people don't know is that due to this fact, if a left handed person drank a Jaegermeister mojito they would die instantly. The exact scientific reason for this is not easily explainable to the layperson, but it has to do with the way lefthanded people's deviant, twisted brains are wired to their tastebuds...which have horns. The same thing would happen to a right handed person in the southern hemisphere, of course. The good news is that anyone can enjoy a refreshing Jag mojito while standing on their head. The more you know.