J is going away on one of his trips for the month, starting Wednesday, so I will have more time to post. It's hard to get anything done when he's around, as he's a cuddle monster and is always in my lap (not that I'm complaining).
Friday night J and I went out to dinner with two other couples to a lovely Italian restaurant on Charles St called Sotto Sopra. It's on the expensive side, but I felt the food, the setting, and the service were worth the price. I had duck raviolli in a sweet, reduced veal broth, with a goat cheese and arugula salad with dried cherries. I had creme brulee for dessert. We also got a bottle of wine called a Vernaccia, from San Geminano, Italy. It was light and fruity, but also had a nice dry crispness that was perfect with my meal. We're probably going to pool our cash and buy a case of the stuff.
The ritual of going to dinner at a fancy restaurant is still fun for me: the table arrangement, the order the waitress takes our orders in and serves us, the wine ritual... We remarked how it was both nice to be taken seriously at a nice restaurant, but sad because it means we're getting old!
A few weeks ago I was really proud of us, as we spent the whole weekend cleaning the house top to bottom (except the backroom which only got tidied a bit). The house stayed that way for about a week. Now it's back to it's regular messy state. It's just so hard to devote precious free time to doing stupid mundane things like dishes and laundry and tidying up, even though we feel better after they are done. I can cook and decorate and grow things and knit and all that fun domestic stuff, but when it comes to housework, I throw in the towel ;)
I've been watching the weather the past few weeks as I was anxious to get my Calla Lilly bulbs in their pot. I have Caladium in another long pot as well. I only get partial sun, but I'm hoping for a luscious colorful deck this year. I'm also planting herbs, lettuce, and spinach.
On Easter I made Spinach Quiche! It was my first quiche, but I learned from my mom that to avoid a soggy quiche you need to pre-bake the crust:
Spinach, onions, bell pepper, swiss and cheddar cheese.
I also have some pretty pictures over on Flickr from when J, M and I went to Longwood Gardens in PA. My camera battery died soon after we got there, so I used M's camera for most of it:
When J gets back we'll start new-apartment hunting in earnest. We'd really like to rent a house, but we'll see what we can find. We want a place with 3 bedrooms, or 2 bedrooms and a finished basement so the snakes can have their own room and I can still have a studio. I wish we could afford to buy, but it's not going to happen this year.
Tucked behind Old Ellicott City, a bit down the river is Oella. The apartments in Oella that they built in the old mill look absolutely gorgeous, and are in a wonderful location, but are ridiculously priced! We were pretty sad to discover we couldn't afford to get something there in a space we could use. I'd still like to tour them though. http://www.oellamills.com/
1 comment:
Hi nicee reading your blog
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