first weekend in November

No, I have not been blogging in recent days, I know.  Sorry!  In my defense, not a heck of a lot going on compared to a trip top SE Asia.  But I've also been occupied with working with Conrad on his upcoming big birthday celebration in the desert.  So... forgive me.  And here we go!

Friday:  Maestro.  Next!

Just being funny.  No Van this time.  What we did have, though, was a pleasantly warm fall evening.  We decided to sit outside so as to enjoy it.  Cocktails, guacamole, roasted beet salad, birria tacos.  All in all, a nice evening of it, and not too late of one at all.

Saturday morning we took a walk, as usual, and ended up at Amara Cafe, as usual.  A light bite for me only. 

I had plans for lunch with a friend over in Glendale.  That lunch took place at The Habit.  Mark didn't want fancy or expensive, and I love The Habit, so it was that I got to enjoy a seared tuna sandwich and tempura green beans. 

Man, it's been ages.  Loved it!

Lunch didn't go too late, happily.  I came home, and Conrad and I worked on refining and packaging the goodie bags for his birthday celebration. 

I got a lasagna in the oven for him and me and Van to enjoy.  And then, around about 6PM, there was a text from a new friend, Jack.  He and his husband, Manny, were running late for coming for dinner but were on there way.

Um, what?  Ah, Peter, you idiot.  A quick check of the text message thread showed that they were right and I had the wrong date in mind.  A scramble ensued.  There was plenty of lasagna,

but the table needed setting nicely, I needed to cobble together a salad, lay out some nibbles, and send Conrad for some dessert from a bakery nearby.  We managed it all, and I fessed up to Jack and Manny when they arrived.  Nice guys.  The conversation was easy, and they stayed late.  I hope we'll see them again before too long.

Oh, did I mention that our dishwasher is broken?  After the guys left, I sent Conrad to bed, and I hand-washed and dried all of the dishes, leaving the kitchen pristine but putting me to bed very very late.  Ugh.  That was not a banner night of sleep, and I ended up having a late morning nap on Sunday before Van picked us up.

Sunday saw us heading to Eataly for some lunch (salad and pizzas, a strawberry non-alcohol spritz for me) and shopping.  It's panettone season, hooray!

Conrad and I spent the evening with some of the goods from the shopping trip to munch on plus an episode of Great British Bake Off to watch.  A nice evening indeed.

Whew, an abbreviated and overdue report on how things went last weekend.  Fun times, and fun times ahead.  Sorry for it being so point form, but more to blog about this week and beyond! 

fried chicken dinner

A quick hello before I dive into work on a Thursday morning.  I've been up for a few hours already, had a nice walk with Conrad, just finished my oatmeal.  Decaf brewed, and I'll enjoy some before I get ready to head to the office.  A bit of a late day for me, so a bit of a late start.

Anyway, last night we popped over to Holy Saints! (the exclamation mark is theirs)  I've only been once before - sometimes we really must go to other places than our usuals, I know.  That other time was on a special fried chicken night with Van.  And here were the three of us last night, back again for fried chicken.

Food?  Great.  Service?  A little hit and miss.  Restaurant interior?  Really loud.  I should go back and try their other food, but I would want to sit out on the sidewalk.  I constantly had to lean across the table to ask Van to repeat himself because I had all of the other tables and the open kitchen behind me.

But the food was good.  I start with a glass of rose, and the three of us shared biscuits, a version of a Waldorf salad that I loved but that I wanted something a little salty in (blue cheese, perhaps?), and a whole chicken.  Cut up and fried, that is.  We declined any hot honey drizzle - we remembered it being too much for us last time.  They gave us some BBQ sauce, which Van enjoyed.  Me, I just liked having the chicken.  Really tasty, fresh out the fryer, not greasy.

A happy little night.  Van had come over early with Olive, and we had a small round of cocktails while talking election results.  After dinner, Van took the little girl home, and Conrad and I?  Lights out by 9:30!  Bliss! 

first weekend in November

So here we sit, Tuesday night, watching election results come in, hoping for the best.  If you don't know what I mean about that, then you really don't know me, do you?  Nevermind.  I think most visitors to the blog are just programs crawling the net, but in case you are a real reader, well, hello and here's hoping the US begins setting things right.

Anyway.

Friday!  Friday we made a return to Maestro for the first time in a month.  Van came with us, and we all sat at a corner of the bar and enjoyed food whilst catching up with folks there.  My gosh, I missed Mexican food.  Have I ever mentioned that if I ever had to limit myself to the food of one country for the rest of my life, Mexico wins hands down? Because it does.  I didn't take photos of the food (queso fundido, guacamole, short rib burritas, kale salad), but I did take a photo of my first cocktail, the Mezcal Campfire,

before I lapsed into just enjoying myself.  Sometimes that's the best thing, probably more often than I do to be honest.  After Maestro, we came back to the condo and subjected Van to the rest of the photos from SE Asia.  He was a very good sport.

Saturday!  Saturday morning Conrad and I walked, and then it was on to Amara Cafe. 

Not our first time since we got back, but very welcome nonetheless.  I had massage scheduled for midday, and I did some ALA stuff after that, but the evening was nice.  The three of us (plus Olive!)

at Van's where he made us burgers. 

Oh man, more food that I missed all month.  A Sharona cocktail to start,

some snacking, wine with dinner.  We ate well and ignored Halloween and went to bed not too late.

Sunday!  I was up early for a bit of a stroll.  It had rained overnight, and I could see the evidence still on fruits and flowers in yards. 

Van eventually got up and made us all a breakfast,

a little tradition we hadn't had in several weeks.  Conrad and I came home, I made some banana bread, and then it was a nice FaceTime catch-up with Courtney and Robert whilst I enjoyed an Italicus spritz. 

Dinner that night was a ham from TJ's.  Not a banner dinner, not a ham I will buy again soon, but it was ok.  We watched some Bake Off, and eventually headed to bed.

Sorry, I'm far from effusive.  I keep flipping back to the NYTimes to see results.  Later this week I shall be more attentive to the blog!  Happy November out there. 

peafowl

Well, howdy!!  I haven't seen one of these around town in ages, but lo!  This morning, there was one in a yard on Euclid.  How nice to see.  The Pasadena wildlife abounds! 

notes from a mild and mostly ordinary week

It's not vacation, but it's not hardship.  Things tick along, and it will be a little while to the next big and exciting thing.  And that's ok!  In the meantime...

Sleep cycles continue to be odd.  Wednesday night I crashed out around 9:15 after nodding off during an episode of Great British Bake Off.  And then I was awake by 3:30 on Thursday morning.  Last night I made it to closer to 10:00 and then woke up at 3:59 this morning.  Progress?  Sure.  I hope.

Work is fine. 

Six more weeks of the semester to go, and I'll miss about 1.5 of them for travel.  And then it's a glorious bit of time off over the holidays!

Morning walks are getting a little more ambitious.  Over three miles yesterday.  Good!  A little lighter this morning because of my schedule and the drizzle,

but still a couple of miles.  It's so nice to get some rain without getting torrents of it.  May we get more!

Normally I am in a holiday mood by now, playing Christmas music while I work, that sort of thing.  Maybe the trip threw that off-kilter (although I was playing some holiday tunes on occasion during the summer).  I'm not in a holiday mood yet, and I sort of feel like I need to get through Conrad's big birthday celebration before I am.  But those cards will need organizing!  Despite all of this, I did this at work yesterday.

This week it's back to some old friends.  Maestro tonight for the first time in a month, Mama M Sushi last night.  Alas, no Jack, so we couldn't tell him about Potong, which he recommended.  Still, it was a delight to sit outside (wearing sweaters - it's getting cool here!) and enjoy some sashimi, an avocado roll, and agedashi tofu.  Nice night!

I'm looking forward to time for the three of us (plus Olive) this weekend.  Hooray for that.  Next week will be rather like this one but with better sleep, I hope.  November comes on Sunday.  Here's hoping it's a great month. 

back in my kitchen

In truth, last night was not my return to my kitchen.  Friday was, a simple dinner of turkey meatloaf.  And man, was that good to have.  I've since made us a pasta dinner and now a meal of pork tenderloin.  A regular for us on the dinner table.  Lightly braised carrots on the side along with a shaved Brussels sprouts, celery, and mint salad.  Made for a nice midweek meal whilst we kept catching up on Great British Bake Off.  Just the right thing.

I love dining out.  I love being surprised and amazed and awed and even amused by food.  I love being confounded in all the best ways.  But after days of dining out, I am keen to get home and chuck things in a pan and hope for the best.  One makes me appreciate the other, and vice versa. 

kind of a normal weekend at home... kind of

Well, heck, it's 5:37 in the morning, and I've been awake for two hours.  Came home from Van's, I should go downstairs and work out a bit (I will, I will!), but I thought it might be good to dash off a blog entry as a return to real-life blogging.  No luxury hotels or culinary walking tours here.

Yes, we're jetlagged.  I was fading badly through dinner last night and went to bed before 8.  I didn't want to, but I was swooning.  So this will take some time to get back on LA time.  I did make it in to work yesterday (after needing to get roadside assistance to jump the dead battery in my car) for a while, though, and I will be there the rest of this week.  But yeah, things are off.  And it's such the opposite of the trip!  We landed got to our hotel room around midnight in Hanoi when we arrived and got up at a normal time the next morning, and the rest of the trip we were synchronized with the local time and not struggling.  On this end, we got home on Thursday and were in bed at a normal time (10:30ish), but awake by 3:30 the next morning.  It was worse through the weekend with bedtimes and badly needed power naps.  I am dreading setting the clocks back this coming weekend and the effect that will have.

Anyway, we got through the weekend, so how about a weekend report?

Friday, not much to say.  I was heartily tired of eating out so much, and I badly wanted to cook in.  Nothing fancy:  turkey meatloaves.  Goodness, it was a welcome dinner.  Conrad and I watched Great British Bake Off and that was our simple evening.  And it was good.

Conrad slept in on Saturday morning, so we skipped the walk and going out.  I didn't go out all day, in fact.  A lot of unpacking to do, and then there was dinner to make for having Van and Olive over.  Simple pasta, a buttermilk fruit cake that was deliciously boozy.  Conrad went to bed early, I pushed through to get dishes done and the kitchen clean, and then I was wide awake until 1 AM.  Yikes.

Sunday came, and we did a walk then on to Amara for breakfast (and yes, we will make it back to Maestro and Mama M this week). 

In the afternoon we had online happy hour with a Halloween theme.  We did that before in 2024, so I was able to pull from that set of recipes and came up with a few drinks. 

I liked the Corpse Reviver No. 2 best - there's a reason it's a classic. 

The Afterlife was my second favourite,

and then the Skeleton Key. 

We cut short our time on the call, though, and headed to Van's, picking up an easy dinner to heat for the three of us.  Van had an overnight appointment to get to after dinner, so we were going to take care of Olive for the night. 

That was nice, but again, I was awake until too late (after midnight) and not a good and long night of sleep after that.

That was the weekend that was.  Trying to get back to normal, some of the trappings of normal, not yet there.  Two weekends to go before the next one out of town.  Here's hoping that we get back to normal fully in that time!