busy busy november

From the looks of my calendar November may be my busiest month this year. I don't even want to think about December and the C word. There are four family birthdays in November including mine and Bs. Our birthdays are two weeks apart exactly and I'm the one who robbed the cradle. This past Friday instead of our usual burgers(fake for me) and fries and a movie, we went to the ballet. All the dances were pau de deux. There were trois of these each about cinq minutes long and then a twenty minute intermission and then trois more and then another twenty minutes of intermission and then again trois short dances. I liked the dances but the evening was two thirds intermission.



Saturday we left at 10:30 for Rochester for the St John Fisher football game at noon. Because we had to leave so early I skipped my normal Saturday morning exercise class and run. (There is another reason I skipped class. I had to shampoo the carpet in my car because a few days earlier a gallon jug of milk had tipped over and leaked in the back of my car. I thought I had taken care of the spill but way more had spilled than I thought and I had been driving to work gagging over sour milk smell for a couple days. It ended disastrously with the purchase of new carpeting. What can I say.) I always enjoyed watching Fisher play football but my focus had always been on Jay and nerves had always been involved. Now that he is just helping to coach and I don't know these boys out on the field, I can focus more on paying attention to the game. This was an exciting high scoring game 49 to 55 with Fisher losing. :( Fisher kept us on the edge of our seats up to the very last second of the game when they threw a Hail Mary Surprise with the ball exchanging hands about six times.



After the game we went back to Jay's house to see the new patio we gave him for his birthday. He plans to landscape and build a shed come spring. We said hello to the kitties Tess and Brody and then drove downtown to a French restaurant called 2Vine. We had eaten here three years ago while attending the Rochester International Jazz Festival and I had been very impressed with the food and the ambiance.



We were having an early dinner so it's not very crowded in the pic but by the time we left the place was packed. We sat at the bar for a few minutes and ordered drinks and snacked on yummy dry roasted garbanzo beans and fava beans while our table was being prepared. Gazing at the drink menu I noticed that three or four of the drinks featured the Green Fairy - absinthe. I had actually thought this was a banned substance. The bartender showed me the eerie green liquor in a bottle that looked like it could have been purchased from Anthropolgie.



We placed our order. I was interested in the eggs du jour. A thin omelet with tomato concasse and parm. B said he would get up and walk out if I ordered eggs so I ordered the same thing I had ordered three years ago. Then I watched the sun set and dozens of crows swoop back and forth the across the skyline.



B and I both ordered the soup du jour. A creamy pumpkin soup with sage and bits of toasted walnut with sage creme fraiche. Yummy yummy but I burnt my esophagus it was so hot.



B and I both ordered the same roasted beet salad. Greens with a couple roasted beets, grapes, mango, and Maytag blue.



I had the mussels in a light fennel broth



served with pomme frites



Jay had the burger with pomme frites and would not allow me to photograph it. B had a duck dish.



Then I opened these beautiful green amethyst and diamond earrings and pretended that I had no idea what was in the package. We had bid on them and won them last month at the NCCC Scholarship Gala Fundraiser.





And a hoodie and Nike Vapor headphones from Jay. Finally a pair of headphones that don't fall out of your ears....secure, weightless, great sound!! I don't even notice I'm wearing headphones. I used them at work today and running this evening and pronounce them good.



And then it got darker and busier



And we asked our pretty little dark haired waitress to take a family photo of us to commemorate my birthday.

On Sunday I cleaned house most of the day. We had smoked turkey drumsticks, collards cooked in chicken broth with pancetta, olive oil and maple sugar meat rub seasoning and oven roasted fingerling potatoes seasoned with Penzey's Chicago steak seasoning. Then we watched Avatar again in Blu-ray on our big screen TV with surround sound. Who needs to go to the theater. That brings us to Monday....my birthday. But it is now way past my bedtime. We are going to an Emmy Lou Harris concert tomorrow night on UB Amherst campus. Rachel's (our favorite Greek restaurant) has a satellite restaurant on campus) I think we will meet there for dinner and then the concert. After maybe another late night will get me up to speed on my blogging.