Saturday, May 16, 2009
Sorry, new Star Trek, but the whole time I was watching you, I kept thinking, "This is so goofy."
Posted at 9:43:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Friday, May 15, 2009
This is actually really great fabric. It reminds me of Marimekko stuff!
Posted at 11:46:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I'm drinking Prince of Peace jasmine green tea! A.k.a. Dara's tea (a.k.a. Thai Angel tea). I got it at A Dong (I knew they'd have it), and it was only $2.95 for a box of 100. Yikes. Unfortunately, they didn't have any smaller packages. A Dong was really busy today. It seemed like a lot more people are shopping there (to save money?). I checked the Philippines aisle and they don't have Sky Flakes. They did have bottles of mangosteen juice (not in the Philippines aisle), for ten zillion times cheaper than those crazy expensive mangosteen products you always seen nowadays. Hahaha. No, I did not buy any.
Posted at 10:35:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Aaaagh, I have a gigantic sun headache. But I still love the sun anyway.
Posted at 8:08:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Mmmm, SUN. Visiting my blind lady took shorter than expected, and I drove to good ol' former Wild Oats from her house (now a Whole Foods), and my original fav Oats SBUX (now downhill, but not as downhill as it used to be). So 2002. I got my new bad-barista-proof drink: tall dry for-here cappuccino with caramel drizzle on top. The c.d. compensates for sub-par foam. It's sunny! Its sunny. Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart are on the radio. :-) It feels so nice to be free to do nothing. I'm so relieved the book is now out of my hands and I don't have to think about it (until it arrives and I see if there's anything wrong with it).
Posted at 3:37:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
Well, I placed the order. Eeek.
Posted at 4:15:00 AM by Laura W. Petix.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Today's final lobster roll adventure: Captain Scott's Lobster Dock in New London, which was super-easy to get to thanks to my GPS. The Gs were very impressed with Guy and they really liked seeing part of New London that they were unfamiliar with. They each got a hot lobster roll, and I had a cold one. As you can see from the photo, all were served in extra-long New England-style buns but, unfortunately, they weren't especially carefully prepared ones. The Gs said their hot lobster's flavor was good but the roll was too soggy with butter. Pieces were large and a little tougher than at Lobster Landing. My bun was inconsistently buttered/unevenly grilled AND I got an end piece so the edge crust flavor ruined it and I ended up just eating the lobster salad with a fork, leaving my bun. My lobster salad had large pieces and was a little tough. The roll was lined with thick leathery leaf lettuce (I cracked up while writing that... it sounds a lot worse than it was!) and the lobster salad had lots of celery chunks and black specks (celery seed??) on top. All in all, not the best lobster rolls ever (not bad, but not exceptional), but it was a very nice setting with a penguin, neck-tagged goose, and the most beautiful picnic tables ever (they were nice!), right on the marina.
Posted at 2:02:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
They also have a Gifford's ice cream stand including "lobster tracks" flavor, whatever that is. The M didn't want to get Gifford's since she wanted more Old Lyme ICS blueberry ice cream instead, but she went over to investigate "lobster tracks" for me while I speculated about what I thought it should be. Turns out that it's vanilla ice cream with chocolate eclair swirl and red colored caramels (!?). I think it's: red pepper chunks, diced celery and celery seed.
BTW, did I mention that the Gs went to We-Lik-It when they were in Eastford, and they had strawberry-rhubarb ice cream?? (And my Mom got a waffle cone for the first time in her life.) (!) She said the strawberry-rhubarb was really good, but not as good as OLICShoppe blueberry. Aaah! I am in doubt.
We used my Guy to go to Book Barn Downtown from Captain Scott's, and he was super-smart and knew a highly efficient and interesting way to get there, so it was very close. My G said something like, "I hate to admit it, but that thing is actually very useful" and even said he now wanted to get one!! Wowowow. I also impressed the Gs by using my Palma to look up their their Librarything account so they'd know which books their church already has and which it doesn't. Book Barn Downtown has a very impressive religious books section, and they got a whole pile of books to add to the library. Also of course we had to stop at the Old Lyme Ice Cream Shoppe, and when I told the girl that she didn't have to give me such a huge serving because I have a hard time finishing it, she suggested that I could get a kiddie size. I did, but when my Mom saw it she kept saying how "babyish" it was and calling me "babyish" for getting a small one!!! Hahahah. It was a good size. I got this weird special Florence Griswold flavor that was green. It was extrastrong mint, with snowcaps-ish chocolates in it. (No celery chunks or celery seed.)
Back at the Gs' place, we had a big long hang-around-and-chat session. It was nice. I asked the Gs Qs about all different relatives (uncles, Healeys, Whaples...). It was really interesting, but since I have a horrible memory I probably won't remember most of it. BTW, Dean and I went by Whapley Road on Sunday, and we saw the old homestead! I didn't know until after talking to the Gs the other day, but it's on the corner of Main Street and Whapley. Old dark brown wood house. We could just see it through the trees. The address is Main Street, not Whapley. Whapley Road was named because all the land where the Whapley Road houses are now used to belong to my grandparents and they sold it, so the road was built and named after them (Whaples + Healey).
Monday, May 11, 2009
Posted at 7:18:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
I went to Bill's Seafood on the way back from the Gs' again. A Big Band was playing (lots of old people dancing) and it was crowded! I practically had to shout to ask a waitress if there was an open spot for a single diner to sit.
Her: "Are you old enough to drink?"
Me, trying to be loud enough: "Yes!"
Her: "Do you want to sit at the bar?"
Ha!! Old enough to drink?? Yeah, I was flattered. It was fun sitting at the bar. I talked to the gay man next to me (I have very good gaydar), and had another fantastic lobster roll. I failed to specify cold lobster roll when I shouted my order, and apparently the default is a hot one, but their hot lobster rolls may be even better than their cold ones (!), so that was fine just fine. Unfortunately, I couldn't take a picture, since I was sitting two inches away from other people and it would've looked too weird. But it was a very premium lobster roll. Bill's is great!
And yes, today was Shad Day! The very best part was that Atlantic Seafood finally got a real shad sign (nice, huh? I love this sign!) with a picture of shad on it, instead of the crummy handwritten one they had all the previous years. Actually, they still had a hand written one too, for shad fillets, but they had a nice professional one for roe, so shad won't have to feel inferior to all the other fish with their nice shiny laminated illustrated signs. I was so pleased. Oh and the shad was delicious, natch. And I brought the Gs half of MY CAKE and we ate it all.
[Edit: Wow, $10/pair? I'm pretty sure that's way more expensive than at Hale's. Will check next week! Doesn't that roe look super-nice, though?? My mom still couldn't get over the size. She asked the girl behind the counter how big a shad is, and she held up her hands to illustrate. The roe does take up an awful lot of space proportionally, that's for sure.]
Edit #2: Forgot to mention! We also finally got to walk on the beach today. It was still overcast, but warm enough and non-windy. Good stuff I saw: 1) cool big razor clam, B) pretty, texture-y oyster, 3) mauve sand!, 4) shiny sparkly silver ocean and Gs. :-)
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Posted at 3:30:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
We moaned a lot while eating MY CAKE out on the front step. While eating MY CAKE warm out of the oven. "Mmmmmm. Mmmmmm."
We each had two pieces but felt like we could have devoured the whole thing. As it was, I couldn't stop myself from slicing off one last sliver when I went back inside to put the cover on. Must save some to bring the Gs tomorrow (they Raffles'ed the rhubarb, after all), but it's hard. How is it that shad and rhubarb both come at the same time?? It's too much goodness. That kick, that barbed tartness... just, wow. Just, perfection. I am using that word too often but I can't help it. I love spring.
Right now in the oven, MY CAKE is baking, and I made it using rhubarb from the Gs' garden. STOLEN rhubarb from the Gs' former garden, that is. Heh heh. The Gs procured some on Friday when they visited Eastford, and they gave me the appropriated stalks last night. There's even some left over for rhubarb sauce! I don't know if I can take this much deliciousness all at once!
Posted at 3:01:00 PM by Laura W. Petix.
