third weekend in July

Well, howdy!  I guess that after getting all that NYC blogging out of my system, I needed a few days off.  It's more the case, though, that there were just quiet easy days at home and at work, and I didn't take photos of every single thing.  That's OK!  Really.

So let me check in today.  I've got travel ahead this week, and that will bring some fresh material to blog.  In the meantime, the weekend that was....

Conrad and I did an early and light dinner at Maestro on Friday.  We simply weren't that hungry, that's all.  A cocktail,

a light meal, home to watch some Netflix.  See?  A mild life.  No complaints from us!

Saturday I was in the kitchen.  I made some bread and a chocolate cake and the Prudhomme South Miami Cuban Stew recipe

for dinner (that we had over at Van's) with Lessa and Christian as our guests.  Again, few photos - we were having a nice evening, and I just wanted to enjoy it without documenting every minute of it.  Great to see them again!

Yesterday the three of us

headed to the Los Feliz neighbourhood of LA for an anniversary dinner - tomorrow marks 6 years since we met.  Van had suggested a classic old place, The Dresden, and boy, we were not disappointed.  The food was alright, I won't lie, but the cocktails menu was terrific (this is their Martini '54),

and there was live music in the adjoining bar. 

But I loved the setting - creamy leather booths

and those light fixtures, oh my! 

A place to go back to, maybe when my sister visits later in the year.

Otherwise?  Laundry, morning walks, naps.  A typical weekend.  And I'm very glad for it! 

13

No, not the Blur album.  Good album!  One of my faves by them, and I do like a lot of their stuff.  I'm getting off track....

Yesterday marked 13 years of marriage for us.  23 years since our first date as well - that anniversary was this past Saturday.  Hooray for us!

No going out to celebrate this year.  We'll save that for a milestone ahead, perhaps.  Or just a regular date night.  No, I wanted to cook us a nice dinner.  And I somewhat succeeded - that halibut was a little over, sorry to say.  But anyway....

Shopping at Eataly this past weekend helped.  We started with a Vesper each

and some tarallini to snack on while I put together a simple burrata platter. 

Once that was on the table (and oh, what lovely flowers from Van to celebrate our anniversary - that was so sweet of him),

I poured us each some chenin blanc.  Music in the background, no other distraction.  Sitting and enjoying food and wine and talking.  I told Conrad it would be a slow meal - finish making one course and then it was on to the next.  Our second course was a simple pasta with some truffles. 

Reminiscent of what we had in Italy, but the truffles were preserved from a jar.  Not the same as the fresh item, of course, but it was pretty decent anyway.  And a splurge.  Speaking of splurge, a 2012 Amarone della Valpolicella - an Eataly purchase.  We enjoyed that one,

but when I went to the wine fridge to retrieve it, I found that we also had a 2006 of the same style of wine but a different vintner.  That one will be saved for Christmas, and may it have survived what likely have been years of moves and doubtless variation in storage condition.  We shall.  Anyway, I cooked us a bit of halibut with some lightly roasted carrots, drizzled with some olive oil we brought back from our Italian vacation and dotted lightly with some very good aged balsamic vinegar.

That was a lot, and we decided to forego the cookies and ice cream I had for us for dessert.  Otherwise just a nice and - yes, truly - simple dinner at home with some good wine to toast each other and 13 years of marriage!

birthday/anniversary

The end of October is a special time of year.  No, not Halloween.  I don't give the slightest care about that day.  I won't rain on others' enjoyment on it (and that means a hearty FU to anyone who does that to my enjoyment of Christmas - let each of us enjoy what we enjoy), but I won't join in.  No.

Instead, late October means anniversaries - of the first date that Conrad and I had and then of our wedding - and Conrad's birthday.

And this year, I was out of town for two of those three events.

Conrad did go out for dinner to Perle with Natasha on his birthday and while I was in Tampa.  I was happy to see the photos from that. 

It's not a milestone year, but I am sorry I missed celebrating that one.  He had a good time, though.

Today is our wedding anniversary.  Twelve years.  And we took it easy.  Some housework, a nap.  A breakfast at Amara. 

And then I made us dinner.  Some scallops on a really good, savoury carrot puree and thoughts of how I could have done that differently to make it a better meal. 

Dessert was nice:  olive oil cake with a citrus and rosemary creme anglaise, blood orange sorbet, and a bit of an almond praline. 

We had cocktails before dinner and some Pinot to follow.

A nice Sunday night for the two of us, a nice little loving celebration.  I can edit the food in my head but appreciate that we had the day together so nicely.

an anniversary

This past Saturday, Conrad, Van, and I celebrated a small anniversary.  Four years previously, Van had come to dinner for the first time.  He and I had met online, and on that date, we were meeting in person.  I made short ribs for the three of us, and we sat outside.  It was a lovely evening.

And now look at us.

So happy anniversary to us, and hooray for a Saturday to celebrate properly.  We started the day with breakfast at Amara, and then Conrad and I got things done at the condo.  Later that afternoon, we hopped onto the A line and headed down to the Broad Museum to take in the Keith Haring show

as well as some of the regular collections. 

The show was excellent, and I liked the Kara Walker gallery, but the museum was a bit of a zoo of tourists taking selfies with some well-known pieces of pop and modern art.  I didn't mind leaving at closing time.  A short walk through among some skyscrapers and public art

then past the library, and we were at Drago Centro for dinner.

I didn't take photos at dinner until Conrad demanded that I photograph the dessert.  A chocolate dessert, with an extra scoop of salted caramel ice cream, which was a great idea. 

We had a very nice time in a shockingly almost empty restaurant.  It's not a place that we go to often at all, but it is a place we keep in mind for special occasions, such as this.  We splurged on a nicely aged (1995) Chianti, and stretched our meal out over 2.5 hours.

It was a lovely, leisurely afternoon and evening for the three of us.  At the end of it, we took an Uber home to Olive, contented, glad that we celebrated something worth celebrating.

M+M

Before I head to bed, and before the clock ticks over to Sunday, I did want to mark an important date. Today marks 5 years since Conrad and I were delighted a privileged to bear witness to Martin and Mark's wedding in Denver.

Martin and I have roomed together at conferences for ten years now. We met Mark in 2006 while I was in the throes of appendicitis. We cannot say enough good about the two of them - as a couple and individually.

No, not a long blog post, but a sincerely heartfelt one: happy anniversary Martin and Mark. We hope we may raise a glass to you both five years from now, and well beyond.

the first year

Ten years. Today marks ten years from what Conrad and I consider our first date. Ten years.

That's, oh, 20 times longer than any previous relationship I'd previously had. Pats on the back all around.

In the run up to the Big Event (eat your heart out, Will and Kate), I've been casting backward from time to time. I thought it might be fun, then, to share photos from the first year Conrad and I were together.

Unsurprisingly, there are few photos of the two of us. There is this one, however, from about a month after we started dating. Our first appearance as a couple, I guess. It took some of our teammates another year to figure out we were together. We chuckle about that now.

That first year we traveled together: first San Diego (wow, another photo of us!), then trips to my homeland
and his (twice).
San Francisco followed on from that,
and then we capped the year in style, celebrating our anniversary (and his birthday the next day) with a trip to visit his cousins in Sweden.
I was a little afraid to tell him how much I wanted to go with him because I couldn't afford to buy a ticket, and I didn't think he'd use miles for me to go with him. I was delighted and grateful to be wrong.

It was from that trip that one of our household sayings came into our lives: As long as we have snacks and each other...

10 years, much snacking, each other. Enjoy a glimpse into our younger times together.

Smelts anniversary

Reaching back almost two weeks here, but I've got a quietish evening wherein I do not care to do housework. Conrad will be home in about 8 hours - I hope he can sleep on the flight. Me? I'll blog a bit, read a bit, and head to bed.

Two Sundays ago the Smelts had their annual Thanksgiving banquet. This year has been the 20th anniversary of the swim team, so the night had a special feel. It certainly was reflected in the food. I missed last year's potluck, so this was my first team potluck since 2000 - intervening years we dined at Ann Sather instead.

This year we secured a bigger space at the Center on Halsted, and a good crowd turned up. Nice to see some older faces we haven't seen in a while, too. Liz did her usual fabulous job of coaches' awards to the swimmers (Tim wasn't there to get his team MVP award - a shame since I think he deserves a lot of credit for his fast swimming and for his deep sense of team spirit). The team bestowed on the five of us coaches some generous thank you gifts as well - I'm always floored by the generosity, and I promise that I will have IMMENSE fun spending the gift cards!

For almost two-dozen of us, the evening continued across the street at Kit Kat Lounge and Supper Club. $5 martinis - YAY! Nope, I didn't get up at 4:45 the next morning for a swim, I must admit.

The Smelts are so vital to our social life - did you know that Conrad and I met on the swim team? I'm sorry he missed the meal, but I'm ever so glad that we have all our friends on the team.

The banquet:

Ron and Carrie - a wonderful couple, and Carrie is one of the fastest swimmers in her age group in the country.

Tina, of Tina and Brad. Soon to be a former teammate, alas, but we hope to see her in NZ next year.

Brian, another soon to be former teammate. At least we'll have Vancouver. Fast guy, great technique.

Adam, another coach, a very fast swimmer, and reportedly a great massage therapist. Great guy - hey, we share a birthday, so how could it be otherwise?

Heidi - wow, I've frontloaded all the kick-ass swimmers. Do not race this woman at a long distance or in open water. She will take you down. Also a super teammate and our new registrar/treasurer.

Just a small peek at the abundance of food that night.

Hilary. One of Conrad's lane mates, and one of three women in lane one who are an absolute pleasure to coach. So good, they got an award for it!

Doug, a former team president and one of the few friends I have here in the US who actually kind of keeps track of what's going on in Canada. Great guy, and a bloody fast sprinter.

Presentations by two of the coaches: Liz, in the hat (Conrad and I love her to bits, and her husband is my totally excellent dentist, in case you need a recommendation), and Chris (Saturday mornings, and loved by EVERYONE - I can't stress that enough), in white on the right.

Long time Smelt Paul, cutting the cake. Oh, so much cake!

People begin digging in to the cakes.

Jeremy, Lisa, and Carrie discuss dessert, I think. Lisa, by the way, ran her first marathon this year. I'm so proud of her, what an accomplishment.

Stuart, another coach, mugging for the camera.

Romel - super Smelts party host - and Carrie.

John, our little twinkie (and I say that with affection). Also an award winner that night, but a joking award given for his penchant for taking breaks and not quite finishing a set let alone a full practice.


Kit Kat:

With Daniel - he's such good company even if he inexplicably does not like chocolate.

Max (the new co-president), Scot (who works harder than most anyone in the pool to improve his speed, endurance, and technique), and Jani (who I don't know well, alas, but she gave good advice on martinis that night!).

Daniel and me

Some of the group.

Adam and Jeremy, Adam's roommate (former roommate?) and someone I don't see often enough because we swim different nights.

Brian, again.