drag night at Maestro

Hey, sorry.  I've been kind of ambivalent about posting in recent days.  Sorry.

I'll catch up a little here.  I'm in a hotel room in San Diego, and I have time this afternoon (and still have to do some ironing) before I head to my first reception.  So let me finally check in.  No, I won't provide a lot of narration - I'm still kind of lazy - but at least I have photos!

Last week Wednesday, Conrad, Natasha,

and I went to Maestro to enjoy dinner and a drag show.  Nice evening for it.  A shame Van couldn't join us.  We got parked at our table, got our cocktails,

ordered our food,

and settled in to the show.

All in all, a lot of fun.  My only criticism?  The crowd was a bit of a dud.  The queens deserved more cheering and hooting and applause and enthusiasm.

But we had fun, and I tipped well and cheered.

So, thank you, Melissa Befierce,

Mya Befierce,

Queen Angelina,

and Athena Kills. 

And thank you Maestro.  Wonderful show!

gin basil smash

Hi everyone!

Just a lazy little post.  A few bigger posts to come when I have the willpower and wherewithal, but for today, a cocktail from Friday night.  The gin basil smash.  Enjoy!

Cheers!

shrug, with added Conrad

Ah, I kid.  It wasn't a terrible swim. 

A mile in sunny weather, a lane shared with Conrad.  I always enjoy when our schedules align and we can go swim together.  Hooray for us!

shrug

I mean, I was a swim.  I guess.  Meh.

a splash of wine

I had some leftover bolognese in the fridge, so dinner last night was a simple pasta and salad affair.  Nothing too amazing, just basic food.  And with it, a nicer bottle of wine, one of our most recent Epoch shipment. 

A GSM, though I think the proportions were more MGS.  Tasty enough even if some more aging would have been fine.

Cheers!

bolognese

I'm not sure that I mentioned it, but we're off to Italy in just under three months.  I think that three months from today (as this get posted), we'll be en route from Ischia to Bologna.  Hooray!  We've planned this for ages, and we're excited.  So it's appropriate that we went a little Italian tonight.

No, not the cocktails.  Those were the preamble.  A Don't Give Up the Ship for Van. 

A martini made with vermouth bianco for Conrad. 

An Alaska for me. 

A nice start to the evening even if I did dither for ages over what cocktail I wanted.

I spent time this afternoon making a bolognese according to a cookbook I know and like and trust.  Was it the best bolognese?  Nope.  Far from it.  But it was tasty enough with fettucine. 

I also made a caesar salad. 

No, not Italian at all, but typical of USian Italian restaurants.  Can I confess?  It was OK.  I made the dressing twice - my oils were, sorry to say, not rancid but not as good as they could be, and the first attempt was horribly bitter.  Ah well.  It was still a nice meal.  We opened a 2006 wine Conrad and I picked up when we were in Chianti in 2017,

and while it wasn't as big as we might have hoped, it had some nice age on it.

All in all, a good meal for the three of us.  The countdown to Italy continues!

so. darn. cute.

Come on.  If you don't think she's cute, then why are we even friends?  Because Olive?  Is so frickin' adorable.

Friday night, Saturday morning (I think you've seen this before)

So let's see:  Friday night at Maestro followed by an easy evening at home.  Check!

Saturday morning at Amara.  Check!

Our regular life in a nutshell.  Fear not, there will be travel by the end of the month!

the Monte Cassino

A nice spin on a Final Ward (or Final Word), the Monte Cassino.  A bit softer and sweeter.  One to try again.

And meanwhile, that same night (Wednesday night), Van and Olive were adorable....

I swam yesterday!

A little.  Only a little.  And it wasn't even my first swim of the month, believe it or not!

But it still was pretty damn mediocre.

jacaranda

The June Gloom doesn't show them off very well, but the jacaranda trees are in bloom. 

A lovely, pastel purple lining streets here and there.  Not a native tree, but a beautiful one.

Although there is a purple "snow" that results, and apparently it can be a messy one at that!

 

On a side note, the matilija poppies (native to California) that I saw on my Thursday morning walk were in all their fried egg glory!

look who came home!

Hey!  It's Conrad!  And we're home together for almost two weeks.  Miracle of miracles.

Radhika

While Conrad is out of town, Van and I had a nice little dinner out in South Pasadena.  I didn't get photos of the whole meal, but I did get a shot or two of Van,

and I did photograph the pakora (which they called vegetable tempura),

but not the rest.  It was nice to try Radhika, though.  We had some rogan josh and some baby back ribs that I liked.  I think the meat could have been more tender, but all in all, a good meal.  Worth going back!

Montana escape, day 5

Well, howdy!

So let's wrap up Montana.  And, really, there isn't much to say.  We did get a bit of time in Bozeman after checking out and before heading to the airport to grab some lunch and get one or two last photos in town, but not much more.

No, really, the main reason to post something from the last (and travel) day is to post this little cutie.

I put that in my Facebook story, and when I told someone who responded that it was tasty, he was shocked to learn it was edible.  Oh yes.  A little chocolate and raspberry dessert.  I had seen them and other beautiful treats in the hotel cafe for days, and I was bound and determined on my last morning to get one to try!

If previous posts have shown anything, that hotel has an excellent culinary team.  The little chocolate bear was so very tasty.  I almost couldn't eat it, it was so darn cute!

That wraps up Montana, and what a superb escape.  I am so fortunate that Van has treated me to a few trips like this so far.