ALA folks, hard at work, fabulous

I had to put that last part of the post title in there given the outfits that certain people were sporting.

;-)

I don't talk much about professional activities or my workplace on this blog. I think I wouldn't write a blog if I had to write about the things I spend several hours a day or more paid to do instead of the things I spend the rest of the time enjoying or daydreaming about. Truthfully, there are others out there who have given librarianship and ALA better thought. Find them, and reflect as you will. Try Lauren, just for starters.

A few people at this conference asked me if Conrad was with me. No, he wasn't, and it's unlikely he will be with me at conferences in the future. No, don't despair: all is more than well between us. No, we simply realized that conference, no matter how much we may like the host city, is not a place for him and me time. It's a place for my time with the librarians I've connected with over the years, and drawing Conrad into that world is not easily done. It's enough, I hope, that I call and text him several times a day and update him in such exhaustive detail that hanging up is surely a welcome relief to him.

I now sit on Council at ALA, this time at the very back in the Social Media Trouble Makers corner, as Aaron put it. While there, I am reading documents, listening to reports, following debate, occasionally venturing to a microphone to contribute, and tweeting and Flickring and FBing and e-mailing all in hopes of pushing some sense of the richness of conference activity out to people who might be interested.

Good people at ALA, and I wish I had photos of more. I have at least some, though, and not just from the Council chambers. Wandering the exhibits, I bumped into others:

Aaron
Kate
Matt and Peter (with me!)
Bobbi, Courtney, Alexia (plus shoes!)

Courtney, again
Dale
Bobbi
Gina
Aaron
the aforementioned Lauren
Nanette (ALA staff - those staffers really do so much for us)
Dale (and TK - yes, lots of time spent hanging out with him this conference)
Jodie and Courtney

And finally, the crew of us trying hard not to see, hear, nor speak evil...

a last word about Baltimore

Was it really a week and a half ago that I was in Baltimore? Philadelphia seems so long ago. At least I have now had a glimpse of Delaware, thanks to the MegaBus trip down to Maryland.

I wish I had taken photos at Charleston, but it did make for a good meal not having to pause everyone while I snapped. Alas, without photos, I shan't blog the meal. Just know that it ranks among the best meals I've ever had, and I hope to get Conrad there one day - with or without our Baltimorean friends. And thanks again to Michael for the very generous treat of dinner there.

I can't say much good about the brunch food the next day, but I can say that it was a treat to see Dale - at long last - in Baltimore. And an additional treat to see Michael. Good company, very much so.





Let me wrap up that visit by saying that brief as it was, it was good, special, and meaningful. Any chance I get to see my best friend, Todd,

is welcome - we've had conference time together in San Diego and, in June, we'll have New Orleans. It's so much better, though, to have no programs or committee meetings to attend, to just be able to hang out. What did we do that was so great? Watched NCAA basketball together, walked the dogs, went on a coffee run, rummaged through the clothes in his closet, strolled a bit in the Inner Harbor. And really, aren't those the sweet little building blocks of friendship?

I'll remember a short spring visit to Baltimore for a lot of reasons, and smile when I do.

Silver Fox

There is a long list of men in my life with whom I'm a tiny bit smitten. I don't mean in love with in the Conrad way, no. But there are some sweet, cute, hot, funny guys whom I just once in a while think, hmmmm.... And then I shake my head and remember how happy and well off I am.

Let's see (in alphabetical order), some examples:

Brett

David

Greg

Luis

(with apologies to all the other handsome men I know who I did not add to this particular list - some of you very definitely know who you are!)

And then there's the Silver Fox in all his silvery foxiness. Ah Dale. Handsome and charming. Snarky as all get out. Southern. Did I mention silvery and foxy?

Dale came to town last weekend for a few days of courses. I ended up backing out of Tuesday dinner with him and Max, but I did get a Sunday afternoon to enjoy his fine company.

We shopped.


We went to Bin 36 for drinks and a very late lunch/snack.

And the whole while I basked in his foxiness
and was content. Well, the service was a little off at Bin 36, but the cheeses were fine.

Sadly, I will not see him on my quick jaunt to Baltimore next month, but I will get to meet up with him (and his partner, Steven) in DC in June. Small delights to look forward to...

cookie binge

After a long dormant period in the kitchen - laziness, travel, holidays - I am back!

Well, you knew that already. I have actually posted a few things. This post should not be a surprise. Still, are you sitting down?

I've been baking.

Yep.

I know.

Last week was a bit obscene, in fact. I overdid it, and it's a wonder I even want to go into my kitchen anymore. Still, TK needs his CotM supply, and if one conference roomie gets cookies, I cannot neglect the other. And the SF wondered where his cookies were, and I thought, "Gee, if I'm mailing cookies to Baltimore to two people, I can't forget one of my all-time favourite Smelts, Tim." And Jeph's birthday needed a batch of cookies, and Brian's birthday was just yesterday. Also, we had some goodies from Vancouver to send up to Conrad's sister.

How many people is that?

I made four different types, but in the interest of some element of surprise, I photographed but one batch, the thin, crispy, tasty double chocolate cookies. How sad that I had to hold back the misshapen ones. Mmmmm.

TK jokes about his friend Jamie being my arch-nemesis, meanwhile, but, in fact, I have met her, and she is quite lovely. And she's just got a new position starting Monday. So... back into the kitchen today to get some cookies for her to start off on a happy note. Biscotti this time (orange, milk chocolate and almond) - I whipped them up in between finishing a workday at home and heading for a short swim. I hope she likes them. I may concoct a few more for her, in fact. Stay tuned.

And come to think of it, I'm in town this Saturday morning. Scones for Smelts resumes. Huzzah!

dinner with Dale

One great thing about having ALA Annual in the city where I live (and believe me, I have many complaints, gripes, brickbats related to having it here in Chicago) is that I get to have friends from out of town over for dinner. Or dine out with them, at the very least. It's a rare treat, and I took advantage last week to have Dale over.

Ah Dale. We met virtually through mutual friends/colleagues, then met in person when he was in Chicago for a different library conference last year. I have many good things to say about his charm, wit, humour, and handsomeness. He was someone I turned to early in Dad's illness, and he was a good font of information and advice. He listened. If he's reading this, he's blushing by now, surely.

Anyway, I was keen to have him over and for Conrad to meet him, and I'm delighted that it was a success all around. We had a good evening of vegetarian food, much wine, and conversation, and we were happy to sort of repeat it a few nights ago over tapas and then dessert and cocktails at a couple of Boystown restaurants.

I also have to say, I love cooking for vegetarians. They challenge me. Dale, in fact, was not too difficult - few dietary restrictions paired with a love for pulses, grains, and cheese. Easy enough.

I got the table set, some cheeses ready for us to devour when he arrived, and then mugged for Conrad's camera. I am shameless. And vain: the table was a nice sight, and the cheeses were well-softened by the time Dale showed up.

Up first was gazpacho. I may be rushing the summer season a little, but I was in a mood for a simple chilled soup. First time making it, and while I might ease off some of the olive oil in the future, I was pleased. What a shame I broke my blender jar, dropping it on the floor while doing my kitchen clean up before Dale came. Darn. Fun to go shop for a new one, but the old one really did work fine.

After that, I put out a bowl of a fava bean, leek, and feta puree to go with the remaining bread as well as some radishes and a simple salad. More wine. Easy meal.

Dessert was an old standby, and a tasty one at that: Plum cardamom upside down cake. really, I should have had more eaters there - it merits a bigger group to polish it off in one go. No matter. I loved the piece I ate and sent the rest in to Conrad's office the next day.

I hope that we'll see Dale later in the year when he may have to return to Chicago for business. We'll stock the bar a little differently and attack late autumn/winter vegetables. Should be fun!

Green Zebra (dinner with Dale)

I'll get this post started, at least, before we head out for the day. A sunny morning in KC, and it promises to be warm. Summerlike, in my view, but then, I have the skewed northern Canadian perspective on what constitutes "warm".

Backing up to Thursday...

Dale (a better shot, though blurry - he cursed me already this morning for yesterday's photo) is vegetarian. Apparently not even bacon will work its magic on him, and accordingly, I picked a restaurant I thought would offer him many good options. I am not a fan of the bean-y/rice-y/tofu-y approach of Chicago Diner and its imitations of real meat dishes, and I've enjoyed Green Zebra in the past, so we met there at 6:30.

I'll deal with the food in a moment. I should say that dinner was enjoyable for the company - Dale and I have known each other through mutual friends and through social networking for some time, but this was the first time meeting face to face. He was utterly charming, his haircut was quite fine, and I hope I held up my end of the conversation well.

I especially hope that because the restaurant was noisy. We each had to lean in a number of times and ask the other to repeat what was just said. When we'd finished dinner I badly wanted to head for a quiet place so that we could chat and hear each other. Strike one against Green Zebra.

Strike two was how off the timing and some of the service seemed. At times there seemed to be a lag - getting our drinks was the first such I noticed - and Dale eventually commented that he felt he was losing his appetite because of the pace of the meal. As for the service, mostly it was reasonable if not especially attentive. The oddest instance was the soup service. The bowls were set before us and we heard what the soup was (the tasting menu was not printed, so we had nothing to refer to). The person bringing the soup left, and we sat there, wondering if we were meant to drink it directly from the bowl because we had no spoons. After a minute or two, we caught the attention of someone who was supporting the waiter in the section and asked him for spoons. He told us that he would get our waiter but that it would take a few minutes because the waiter was with another table. Hmmm. So we sat politely until the waiter came. He told us what the soup was, and we thanked him and asked if we should drink from the bowl or could we have spoons. That got us spoons. We can laugh - and the soup was chilled, so no worries on that - but funny as it was, it shouldn't have happened.

So I felt a little badly about the choice of restaurant, and worse when Dale told me he had enjoyed Chicago Diner the night before. Still, the food was no less than interesting and some courses were very good. Onward (and without the assistance of a menu)...

Amuse-bouche: spiced eggplant and pine nut.

A salad of papaya, grilled white asparagus, and champagne sabayon.

Soup. I loved this despite the spoon issue. So clean and simple and lovely. Green pea with creme fraiche.

Curried potato potstickers with coconut, red pepper threads, and a lime-cilantro sauce. Dale had mushroom-filled potstickers instead, though I don't think he cared for them.

Another tasty course: gnocchi with artichoke, parsnip, carrot, fava bean, and lemon zest.


Dessert. Another strong showing for the restaurant. Mint panna cotta with a topping of bittersweet chocolate and two chocolate macaroons. The flavour of mint was green and herbal, not the cloy sweetness of extract. Good stuff!

Alas, unless another vegetarian friend comes to town, I may not be back to Green Zebra soon. Conrad, CG, and I are trying another of the owner's restaurants in a couple of weeks, though, and I feel a little anxious now. I am sure the food is fine, but I hope the overall experience lives up to it. Dale, we'll head up to Devon for Indian food next time you're through town.